Mother and stepfather gave 9-year-old boy 'whoopings' with extension cords and pulled him out of school so teachers wouldn't see his wounds

Background: The Kenton County Detention Center in Covington, Kentucky (Google Maps). Insets (from left to right): Patricia Stokes and Antonio Collier (Kenton County Detention Center).

A mother and her husband in Kentucky have been found guilty of giving her child "whoopings" with extension cords and belts, authorities announced.

Patricia Stokes, 33, and Antonio Collier, 32, were both found guilty of criminal abuse in the first degree, the Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney's Office told Law&Crime. Stokes was also found guilty of fourth-degree assault, while Collier was convicted of second-degree assault.

The case stretches back to December 2024, when a 9-year-old boy's aunt noticed scarring on his body, Cincinnati Fox affiliate WXIX reported. She took him to the Northern Kentucky Children's Advocacy Center, where he said his mother and stepfather had been abusing him for more than a year.

Detectives with the Covington Police Department began investigating and learned that the parents removed Stokes' son from his school in 2023 and kept him in his room most of the time. He would reportedly be beaten with household items and fists.

Jail records show Stokes was arrested and booked into the Kenton County Detention Center on Dec. 12, 2024. Collier was not there at the time of Stokes' arrest.

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"Her 9-year-old son was found by a family member to have scars and marks all over his body where he had been beaten with a number of different items that we think includes an electric cord and some type of hanger," Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders said at the time, per WXIX. "The parents know the marks they left on the child would cause alarm with school staff and cause them to call police."

"It gets at your emotions when you see that a child is scared because of the abuse he's undergone," the prosecutor added, calling the defendants' actions "basically torture." Sanders said the boy is "not only going to suffer from the mental scars, but actual physical scars for the rest of his life. It will be very difficult for him to outrun the abuse that he's suffered."

Collier was later arrested and booked into the Kenton County Detention Center on Jan. 8, 2025.

Authorities said they will announce a sentencing date for Stokes and Collier at a later date. The Kenton County jury that convicted them recommended Stokes serve 16 years and Collier serve 24 years — 16 for the abuse charge and eight for assault — with Collier's sentences to be served at the same time.