Mobile woman sentenced to 20 years for 4-year-old’s death from broomstick attack

By Brendan Kirby

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — In a case a prosecutor said “shocked the conscience of everyone involved,” a judge Thursday imposed the maximum 20-year prison sentence on a woman who admitted causing the death of a 4-year-old boy in her care.

Yolanda Denise Coale had been set to stand trial in December for felony murder in the death of King Lyons. But the 55-year-old Mobile woman accepted an 11th-hour plea bargain, admitting to reckless manslaughter in the death of King Lyons.

Prosecutors presented evidence that both King and his older sister had been beaten with broomsticks and belts, and sometimes locked in a closet. Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood praised the sentence and said prosecutors agreed to the plea bargain in order to spare young children from having to testify.

“This was certainly a horrific situation for those children,” he told FOX10 News. “And, you know, we have now held Miss Coale accountable for that. … A 20-year sentence, this is going to be most of the rest of her life.”

Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Coy Morgan told the judge that he personally spoke with two children in the neighborhood of the defendant’s home on Jacob Drive between Dauphin Island Parkway and Dog River. He said they told him that Coale made King and his sister call her “master.”

Mobile County Circuit Judge Brandy Hambright said the evidence was clear that the defendant had inflicted “heart-breaking” abuse on Lyons and his sister over an extended period of time.

“The little boy was put into your home, ostensibly by people who intended to put him in a situation where he would be loved, cared for, nurtured,” she said.

Coale had custody of the children because a judge had determined that their mother, Coale’s half-sister, was unfit.

Morgan asked the judge to imprison Coale for “not a second less” than the 20-year maximum. He said Coale subjected King to “horrific, abuse, long-term abuse” before he died in February 2022.

“It’s the worst case I’ve seen, being on the murder team,” he said.

Mobile County Assistant Public Defender Glenn Davidson argued for lesser sentence that would include some prison time and probation. He said it “obviously was a tragedy” and acknowledged that Coale did not provide the ideal safe, loving home.

“But the death of this child was not the direct result of actions that Yolanda took against the child,” he told the judge.

Davidson said his client pleaded guilty because she took responsibility for King’s death as his caregiver. But he argued that the evidence suggests the boy’s older sister may well have caused the fatal injuries. He pointed to the first interview investigators conducted with her and noted that authorities initially charged her and took her to the Strickland Youth Center.

Morgan sharply disputed that suggestion.

“The state finds it remarkable that the defense believes a 9-year-old could have inflicted these wounds,” he said.

Dorothea George, a law enforcement investigator who was assigned to the Child Advocacy Center of Mobile at the time, testified Thursday that the girl refused to make eye contact and exhibited other signs of lying during that first interview.

“In this instance, I think she had been coached,” she said.

In a subsequent interview at the Strickland Youth Center, George testified, the girl told investigators that it was Coale who had beaten King.

George testified that Coale used violence and deprivation as disciplinary tools. For instance, she said, she would punish King for wetting the bed by denying him water and would strike the hungry child for taking food. She testified that the boy was so thirsty that he sometimes would drink from the toilet.

George testified that a at other times, Coale would put the children in her closet, which she called the “lock-up” or “lockout” room.

Community activist and former Mobile County school board member Robert Battles Sr. testified as a character witness of Coale. He testified that he grew up with Coale’s father.

“Based on my interactions with her, I’ve never seen any types of behavior that I would consider adverse or negative,” he said.

Battles told FOX10 News that he knows nothing about the criminal allegations against Coale, but he added that he is concerned for her future.

“She’s gonna be sentenced to the Department of Correction, but the Department of Correction don’t correct nothing,” he said. “They make monsters.”

George testified that King’s sister is “a thousand percent better” in her current living arrangement but added that she faces a long road.

“She’s gonna be messed up for the rest of her life,” she said.

Given a chance to address the judge, Coale said, “There are no words that I can convey” her remorse.

“I have spent countless sleepless nights,” she added.

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