California hairdresser taking care of 6-year-old boy while mother was at work beats child to death with ‘raw wood’ because he wet his pants, prosecutors say

Charlyn Saffore had no reason to suspect anything would go improper when she asked Ernest Lamar Love, a “trusted friend” she met through church, to watch her 6-year-old son, Chance Crawford.

It wasn’t until she got a call from Love that he was taking Chance to the hospital that she realized she was living her worst nightmare.

Love, a 41-year-old barber from Placentia, California, allegedly became so offended with his son after he peed his pants in a park that he tortured and murdered the boy by beating him to death with a “large piece of unfinished wood.”

Love has been charged with one felony count of murder, one felony count of torture and one felony count of child abuse leading to death, according to the Orange County District Procurement’s Office. He has pleaded not guilty and stays in custody without bail.

“I was really surprised. I trusted him with my son,” Saffore said through tears. ABC7 Eyewitness News“He died a brutal death. It was brutal. He didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

The catastrophic incident began when she dropped Chance off at Love’s Placentia Barber Shop around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 29. The boy had just finished his third day of first grade, and Saffore was heading to an evening shift as a nurse’s aide at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Love and Saffore met when he was pastor of Amazing Church in Lake Elsinore, where he ministered under the name Azariah and sometimes helped those in need.

“He did the right thing. He helped people move. He helped counsel. He helped people start businesses,” said Jason Welsh, lead pastor at Amazing Church, a visibly shaken voice. Love also reportedly worked in children’s ministry at the church, but was suspended from various positions because of inappropriate behavior toward women.

Love also provided “help” to Chance, whose child he previously babysat.

“He came into my son’s life just as a male figure,” Saffore told Eyewitness News. “He taught him things. He helped him overcome some fears that my son had.”

Surveillance footage from Aug. 29 shows Love entering his barbershop holding a big piece of wood with a “reluctant Chance” behind him. press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The steam surfaced again around 1:30 a.m. Aug. 30, when Love carried Chance’s battered body into the emergency room at Children’s Hospital Orange County. The boy was unconscious and struggling to breathe. He fell right into a coma and later died of his injuries Sept. 4, after being declared brain dead and brought off life support.

“Doctors at CHOC discovered that Chance was missing a large portion of flesh from his buttocks, leaving open, gaping wounds,” the news release said. “Love is accused of beating the first-grader with a piece of wood, then dousing the open wounds with hydrogen peroxide before forcing the boy to do push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks,” the discharge said.

CHOC doctors noted injuries consistent with “violent shaking” and a healing fracture to his scapula, raising concerns that this injury could have occurred previously.

When Love informed Saffore they were going to the hospital, he said Chance had fallen and hit his head while exercising. “That’s hard for me because I believed him when he told me,” the grieving mother told ABC7.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer vows to pursue justice. “Words don’t exist to describe the absolute terror this little boy had to endure — all at the hands of someone who was supposed to protect him, not torture him to death. Now, we, as prosecutors, will do everything in our power to pursue justice for little Chance and be the advocates in death that he didn’t have in life,” he said.

Chance was Saffore’s only child and is described within the book as “intelligent, lively, quick-witted and witty” GoFundMe which was arrange to help cover his funeral costs. “If you had known him, you would have loved him as his entire community loved him,” it reads.

Love faces up to 32 years in prison or life plus five years if convicted on all counts.