Possible Jailhouse Confession In Death Of 2-Year-Old Boy

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this week that a man charged in connection with the overdose death of his toddler son may have made a jailhouse confession.

Coco Wallace, 38, was charged in November with criminal homicide, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and possession of a controlled substance. Authorities said 1200 mg of Oxycodone was found in the 2-year-old’s body. Wallace and his mother took his son, Sebastian, from Wallace’s apartment at Foxwood Manor in Levittown to Lower Bucks Hospital on October 22, but the boy was unable to be saved, according to court records.

Inquirer reporter Ben Finley wrote that prosecutors and police added a statement from a jailhouse informant to the case file. The informant stated Wallace admitted he ” killed his son, Sebastian, at their Middletown Township apartment in October to get back at the boy’s mother,” according to the report.

The new court record Finley obtained said Wallace later denied to police that he admitted to hurting his son. He reportedly said the informant was upset because he would not buy drugs from him in prison.

Langhorne-based attorney John Kerrigan, who is representing Wallace, told LevittownNow.com the details from the informant are questionable. He said he just received a copy of the man’s record and will investigate further.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Weintraub said the new information was admitted as part of the discovery phase of the case. He added that the charges filed against Wallace likely won’t be amended.

“This new evidence enables us to argue for a guilty verdict on either 3^rd or 1^st degree murder as opposed to other lesser forms of homicide,” the prosecutor said via email.

The informant, according to Kerrigan, was in the Bucks County Correctional Facility for forgery.

Police have said the 2-year-old ingested the large amount of pills while in the sole care of Wallace. The question previous to the alleged confession was whether Wallace purposefully was trying to kill his son by leaving the drugs or whether he was just careless.

Wallace reportedly lied to police about whether he had possession of the pills. His girlfriend and young boy’s mother, a resident of North Carolina, told investigators they were traveling with Wallace on I-95 when he chucked a large bag of pills out of the car.

“I miss you a lot have not slept for weeks. Hope you understand my lil man, daddy loved U no matter what !!” Wallace wrote on Facebook following his son’s death.

Wallace’s 9-year-old daughter also lived with him in Middletown. After he was taken to prison without bail, she was turned over to the custody of Bucks County Children and Youth.

Wallace is expected to face trial on November 4.