Couple charged in death of son, 6

A South Philadelphia couple were charged with murder Wednesday after their 6-year-old son died Monday night at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, police said.

Tina Cuffie, 44, and Latiff Hadi, 48, of 22d Street near McClellan Street, allegedly abused and malnourished their son Khalil Wimes, police said.

"Police informed us that the child was 29 pounds," said Alicia Taylor, spokeswoman for the city Department of Human Services. Citing confidentiality laws, she said she could not discuss the case further.

The median weight of a 6-year-old boy in the United States is about 45 pounds, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Khalil was taken to the hospital about 10:45 p.m. Monday and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, police said. The Medical Examiner's Office determined that the boy died of blunt-force trauma to the head, police said.

When he was evaluated, doctors noticed that the boy appeared to have both old and new injuries, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman.

Cuffie and Hadi, who police said also go by the names Tina and Floyd Wimes, were awaiting arraignment Wednesday night.

The couple's neighbors on 22d Street said they did not know much about Cuffie or Hadi, and rarely saw Khalil outdoors.

Hadi has had several brushes with the law, but no criminal convictions appear in online court records.

Cuffie was arrested on charges of welfare fraud in 1997. She was sentenced to two years' probation, and her case remains active because she still owes $4,224.38 of the $5,947 she was ordered to pay in restitution and collection fees, according to court records.

It was unclear Wednesday night what role DHS had with the couple and the boy or any other children they had.

Khalil's condition was a reminder of other abuse and starvation cases, most notably that of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who weighed 46 pounds when she died in 2006.

That case exposed misconduct by a firm contracted by DHS to provide in-house monitoring of at-risk children. Kelly's emaciated, bedsore-ridden body was found in the filthy West Philadelphia apartment that she shared with her mother and eight siblings. The social worker assigned to Kelly was not making required visits to the apartment - a fact uncovered only after she died.