LeBaron Vaughn and Rena Ireland
This handsome, happy looking child is 10 year old Seth Ireland. This time of year, he should be refreshed from his school’s Winter Break, still enjoying the toys Santa brought, and looking forward to the positive changes the New Year could bring to his young life. But he’s not. Seth is not smiling, he’s not playing, and he’s not living. Seth Ireland is dead.
On December 29, 2008, Seth’s mother’s boyfriend, 32 year old LeBaron Vaughn beat Seth into a coma. The reason give to police was “Seth had picked on one of his younger brothers”. According to the police affidavit, the 5’ 9”, 160 lb. Vaughn began his attack by elbowing Seth in his face and then by punching him approximately 10 times in the face and chest. After Seth fell to the floor, Vaughn continued the violence by kicking him 10 times in his legs and body, stomping on his head, and finally standing on the child’s head and small body until he slipped into unconsciousness and fell into a coma.
And where was Seth’s mother, 40 year old Rena Ireland, while he was crying loudly, and being beaten to death? She was in the room watching. What 
did she do to save her son? Not a single thing. Seth was taken by ambulance to Community Regional Medical Center several hours later. He remained in critical condition, never regaining consciousness, and finally succumbed to his injuries on January 6, 2009.
Seth’s biological father, Joe Hudson, had been involved in a bitter custody battle against Rena Ireland since August 2008, around the time Child Protective Services began receiving information regarding abuse of the child. CPS interviews and records indicate that many sources, including the Fresno County Police Department, Fresno Unified School District, and the child’s father, tried to warn CPS officials of the danger Seth faced.
According to Joe Hudson, who had visitation with his son every other weekend and holidays, he noticed bruises on Seth’s legs in August but didn’t file an immediate report because Seth became upset when questioned about it. After Hudson made the report in September, Rena Ireland stopped allowing him to see Seth and she and Vaughn accused him of abusing his son to CPS. Seth’s aunt, Sabrina Ireland, was quoted in 
the Fresno Bee as saying the Vaughn and Rena Ireland, “were trying to shift the blame on the real father, but he wasn’t abusing his child. The boyfriend was [abusing Seth] for months and months and nobody did anything about it.” Abuse allegations against Hudson were never substantiated.
After Rena Ireland was arrested and charged with willful cruelty to a child in mid-August, the Fresno Police Department filed a report with CPS on August 27, 2008. This was the first referral in Seth’s case and was found to be inconclusive. The charges against Ireland were later dropped after an investigator determined the act of discipline by Ireland wasn’t criminal. Police were dispatched to Seth’s home again in October and although no abuse was found, the caller also contacted CPS. On November 17, 2008, Carla Manning, Seth’s principal at Kirk Elementary School, made a report to CPS, stating in a letter that she saw bruises on both Seth and his 7 year old half brother and was concerned for their welfare.
The Sheriff’s Office also made a report to CPS after Ireland and Vaughn arrived at the Fresno County jail on December 26, 2008 and attempted to drop off Seth and his half brother. According to Deputy Chris Curtice, Vaughn stated to county employees that he wanted to leave the boys because they were out of control and he and Ireland couldn’t handle them. After being questioned by another deputy, Vaughn and Ireland changed their story, telling the deputy that they would take the children home and assuring their safety. 3 days later, Seth was fatally beaten.
Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea has stated that the incident on December 26 should have merited an immediate response, and is calling for an independent investigation of CPS. Catherine Huerta, director of the Children and Family Services Department (which includes Child Protective Services) since September 2007, has said the reports didn’t produce “conclusive evidence” needed to remove Seth from his abusive home. Although she refuses to discuss the case in detail, citing confidentiality laws, Huerta has said she and the department managers “support our social worker on this case and the decisions she made.” Huerta also states that she welcomes an independent review of her agency’s actions.
Rena Ireland and LeBaron Vaughn have been in police custody since December 30. Ireland has been charged with two counts of child abuse and is being held on $30,000 bond. LeBaron Vaughn has been charged with two counts of child abuse and murder and is being held on $1,000,000 bond. Both plead not guilty on January 13 and are due back in court on January 22 and February 5, 2009.
Seth Ireland was laid to rest on January 14, 2009. Rena Ireland petitioned the court to attend, and a judge quickly denied her request. About 300 people attended the child’s service and many spoke of his big smile and the joy he brought to all who were lucky enough to know him. Donations for funeral expenses can be sent to:
Mitchell, Miller & Ayala, LLP (attorneys for Joe Hudson)
191 W. Shaw Avenue, Fresno, CA 93704
Should LeBaron Vaughn and Rena Ireland Burn In Hell?
- Yes, both LeBaron Vaughn and Rena Ireland (95%, 261 Votes)
- Yes, but only LeBaron Vaughn (3%, 9 Votes)
- No, neither one of them (1%, 3 Votes)
- Yes, but only Rena Ireland (1%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 275
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67 Comments »
The dude looks like Bugs from the wire.
My jaws were clenched so tight while I was editing this story that I thought I was going to break a couple of teeth. These are the cases that make me the maddest, and they happen too God damn often. It’s bad enough that Mom sits back and allows this piece of garbage to beat her own flesh and blood son to death, because God forbid she would put her kid before her live in penis. What really gets to me, what really burns my ass is how CPS allows another child, usually Black, always poor, to slip through the cracks. I Googled young Seth, and I found the all the required news articles about how the system needs to be fixed, and how so & so didn’t do his/her job and “we all knew it would happen” and blah, blah, blah ad infinitum. And nothing ever changes. Ever. Why? Because to the majority of people (read middle class white) it’s just not that important an issue. I believe this is mainly a minority problem in the eyes of the biggest chunk of Americans, except for maybe a few poor white trash, so it’s easy to say, “oh, how horrible,” and then put it out of their minds. Well, I can’t do that anymore, because I have to read or write about this shit every God damn day. And the worst part is, I’m an loud moth, opinionated asshole most of the time, and I have to admit I don’t have a fucking clue how to change things. I don’t know how to fix a system that is so broken down and overwhelmed that I have serious doubts it CAN be repaired. And how do you make people care? How do you do that? How do I get through to people that Seth isn’t just another statistic – he was a person, a human being that needed to be saved, had to be saved. LeBaron Vaughn and Rena Ireland will pay for their part in his death, but what about the next Seth Ireland? The system and those who can forget so easily are already responsible for him.
I feel the same way, Max. I feel helpless, and I don’t know who to go to. I have been looking for an orginization that represents these kinds of victims and have come up with nothing. All I’ve found is that I can write my state reps over and over again. It has to be better than doing nothing, right? I have to feel like I am doing something. If anyone knows of any org I could be involved in, please let me know where to look. My Google-fu has failed me.
BURN IN HELL!!! BOTH OF THEM
Umm..,is it just me or did anyone else think that bitch looks like a 60-year-old man? I read about Seth a few days ago, but I had NO IDEA just how much he got screwed over. I must have missed something, because if a TEACHER alerted CPS of the problem I don’t understand why nothing was done? So many allegations of abuse ALONG with the two of them trying to DROP THE KIDS OFF…DAMMIT SOMETHING SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE! SETH SHOULD NOT HAVE DIED! I’m getting so tired of these types of cases where EVERYONE fails these children. It’s not right and it’s not fair, but like Max said I don’t even know if the system can be fixed! This is so fucked up, I need to hug my kids now:-(
Yeah- she looks like Redd Fox without the white hair.
She? I thought that was a he bordering on the line of being an it.
How does this keep happening again and again and again?
It makes me sick that a poor defenseless child can be treated like that. Too add insult to injury while he cried for his mother to save him, she ignored him? What? Who does that? These POS scumbags need to suffer chinese bamboo torture or something like that.
I have visited this site many times in the past, read many, many stories that I literally have just stared at the screen and wondered how people can be so cold-hearted and cruel to one another. This is the first one that prompted me to really just respond though. I could not believe my eyes when I read that not only did police officers and family members try to get help for this poor child, but a teacher did as well? What the fuck is our world coming to when a child is trampled to death in what is supposed to be their one place to go when no one else in the world wants them around? What are we doing to our children in the world, especially in this country? The sad thing is, there are abuse cases that are much, much worse than this that never get coverage, never get brought to light. I hope these poor children can find rest in the Lord’s arms when they leave the hells these people put them through. Fuckers like these need to die slowly and very painfully, but unfortunately they won’t. They’ll just sit up somewhere and get old and die, which is more than Seth will get to do now. Please everyone, keep your kids safe. Do whatever it takes. I don’t have kids but I wish to God that I did. Remember that some people can’t have kids and keep your children always in your thoughts. Show them love and let them KNOW they are loved. This shit happens way too often….
Let me get this straight…. You can bring someone into your home… Watch them beat and kill your child and it’s not enough to charge them with murder still? Exactly how stupid and lazy is the prosecutor in this case? To show such a huge dose of callousness should be enough to charge with murder just based upon gross indifference…. Now we will have her back out on the streets shortly since it’s only a “Child Abuse” charge and not murder….
Someobody should of handed Joe Hudson a gun, took him into a room with these pieces of shit tied down, walked out and locked the door then called his cell phone and tell him they killed his son…. Oh… The justice that could have been served in the minutes that would follow that….
I agree Danger, she, along with the piece of shit vaughn should be charged with murder.
Someone should hand Joe a gun after they give him a ballbat to fuck both of them up before shooting them.
RIP Seth
Might be a good idea to give Brandon a ballbat & point him in the direction towards these 2… We can send Joe along just to make sure it’s a fair fight… You know, 2 baseball bats against to tied up genital warts….
A stupid meaningless death. I’m such a jaded individual, that even this site rarely manages to really infuriate me. I expect very little from humanity some days I suppose.
This shook even me though. This poor child. So many people tried to help him and CPS dropped the ball. His brothers witnessed this tragedy from what I understand, so they too will be forever harmed.
What kind of bitch watches her baby get the shit kicked out of him like that? What mother doesn’t die trying to defend her child from the animal that is punching him? Or kicking his limp body on the floor…..
My fear is that these two animals will be released with very little time served (the mother especially). God willing, she’ll never see her living children again and she’ll never have another baby. I don’t have to vote for them to rot in hell. I’m pretty sure it’s already guaranteed.
CPS is so fucking worthless I swear. This shit just keeps going on and on when 99.9% of it could be prevented, but instead CPS would rather sit on their fat lazy asses and do nothing because they know they will still get paid. I’m so fucking disgusted! What the fuck happened to this fucking world! It just keeps getting worse and worse!!!
Yes, and ANS (Abuse Neglect Service) deserves it also.
this makes my mind go crazy. that innocent boy did nothn rong. if i ever found out who did this 2 him i swear
If you ever found out who did it??? WTF? Did you not read the story? or you being a smartalec?
Some simply are not capable of reading Lavonna… That would require them getting hooked on phonics…
LOL you are so funny
Don’t joke about getting hooked on phonics…it’s worse than cocaine. Once you start with the phonics there is a whole slew of other mind-altering things: grammar, word-play, even the dreaded syntax!!!
And what about the side effect of a suddent desire to rip pages from a workbook…
???
Danger
Where were you the other day when I was being attacked by spanky the asshole clown? He was on the Lidnsey Ashford page
I was more than likely working on editing my own site… Do you have a link Lavonna?
A link? I have Facebook and MySpace but that is all.
I meant to the Lindsey Ashford… I already found it… It was Lindsay Ashford… I hadn’t see this one yet….
Oh, I thought you meant a link to a page. I see that some have names that we click on. LOL my bad.
You are so cute… LOL…. I just might have to add you to my messenger if your really this computer innocent… :))
lol I am not computer innocent ( I have a degree in Office Tech) but I am this blog innocent ;-).
The reason I thought you were asking for a link is when someone clicks on your name it takes us to a dating site :-)
That might be because I own the site… LOL…. It’s my little temper tantrum that I threw back in October and am working on getting it off the ground now….
You are getting cuter and cuter as you go….
You are a sweet one!
Rena is so ugly–I couldn’t make out whether she was male or female
–she mostly looked like a pair of lips attached to an andryogenous body. I think I need to put some visine in my eyes to recuperate from looking at her Medusa face. Anyway, I think Rena should be charged as an accomplice in the murder. By doing nothing to stop it, she participated in that child’s murder. I hope she has nightmares every night of her life, and that while she’s in jail she’s tortured by other inmates regularly. I also wish the same for the boyfriend POS, but I’m especially angry at Rena because she was the child’s mother and should have done anything to protect her baby!
Kathy you are funnnnnyyyyyyyyyyy
DAAAAANG that is one F’ed up looking bizznitch. She’ll get to walk fairly quickly I bet, the piece of crap. Hopefully that other “thing” will get what’s coming to him in the clink.
geez, get a friggin’ room, you two!
i mean lavonna and danger. i don’t know why that comment ended up down here instead of up there where they were making googoo eyes at each other
I am just now seeing this! googoo eyes at each other?
funny eternal haha
this story bothered me a lot. i have been promising another story for ages, but have been so busy. but the minute i heard about this child, i knew i had to make you all aware of him and hurried to bang out the article. i think in addition to rena and lebaron, the cps workers, sabrina vaughn and several other family members (who knew about poor seth’s abuse but never reported it) and lebaron’s mother dinnell ammonds also need to burn in the hottest depths of hell.
lebaron’s mother has been quoted as saying, “Rena is a real nice person. My son is a nice person, too. But he has had a temper since he was little.”
Ammonds said Seth is likeable but sometimes causes trouble, usually after he returns from a visit with his father.
“He doesn’t mind his mother, and that can tick off my son,”
you know, if i knew a 10 year old who was constantly abused and alienated, and whose only happy times were spent with his father, i’d expect the kid to be a little unhappy when arriving back to his shitty home after father-son bonding. i can’t believe this bitch is actually trying to make excuses for the fact that her son is a child murdering piece of shit, as if it was seth’s fault. regardless of whether or not he minded his mother (which i tend to doubt, because by all accounts, he was a sweet and considerate child, and would not be troublesome when he knew he’d get beaten for it), what the fuck gave vaughn the right to put his hands on someone else’s child? seth had a father who loved and wanted him. if he was so bad, why didn’t they give him to joe hudson?
because, imho, then the child support and welfare payments would have been too light, and shitbag 1 and 2 wouln’t have been able to continue living the “lifestyle” they were accustomed to.
this is an epic fail by all parties involved, and i’m so angry and sad that seth had to pay with his beautiful life for their mistakes.
In my opinion the only justice I could see is to simply drag these pieces of shit that some would call people into the street and before a crowd of the townspeople, they should then be shot and thrown into a shallow grave. If this sort of justice would make a comeback I believe we would see alot less crime in our world.
We need to stop coddling these dregs of society. There is no changing these people (I use the term people very lightly here). There will be no rehabilitation for these lost souls. To exterminate these predators within our mist, would be sending a harsh message to anyone interested in trying to get away with the same kind of stunt.
No years filing appeals upon appeals sitting in your 6′x8′ little corner of your cell block. Quick and simple elimination of the problem.
If we as a people do not take back our own personal safety please don’t expect others to come to your rescue, cause it rarely happens.
CPS is fucked. Totally fucked!! Why are we as tax payers paying the wages of these asshole who do very little to protect children? We’d be better off pooling our $$$ and hiring a group of mean bastards who hate child abusers to do some vigilante work.
As for this darlings childs mother, only one word comes to mind, and i dont use it often, but here goes…CUNT!!!! What sort of woman can bring a precious life into this world and then sit idly by while he is beaten from it?
String both of them up. Oh, and very well written eternal.
thanks, amy.
How do mothers allow some one to brutally beat their children. What ever happened to protecting your young?
OMG this gets me so god damn mad. I can’t…
I just can’t
That is one ugly bitch!
…to say the least. and the bitch is ugly on the inside and out.
Again another innocent child has to die cos mum’s to cheap to buy a vibrator. Again a whole lot of people asking why does this keep happening. Well it keeps happening cos we’re all just writting on a blog not pressuring the authorities in these countries to make changes. This is a great site but it could be used for so much better by uniting people for an organised campaign to get changes. If we spent half of the time we do writing comments here, writing to authorities something may get done finally.
You should have a members section and organise an action group. Its the only way the system will change.
i couldn’t tell you how many petitions me and my friends have signed, letters we’ve written and emails we sent. it seems like these politicians only care about their own interests. until something (god forbid) hits close to home for them, they will not make changing laws to protect our precious children a major priority. that being said, i will still continue to pester them until i see positive changes and i encourage all of you to do the same. it may not seem like we’re getting very far, but quitting never got anyone ANYWHERE.
something i forgot to mention- vaughn was convicted of unlawful sex with a minor in 1999 and received 3 years of probation. once he and rena got onto cps’s radar, shouldn’t they have picked up on that? would that not have been grounds to remove seth from the home and place him with his father?
i hope the cps worker that handled this case gets what’s coming to her. and by that, i mean something horrible. she can start by getting fired.
Was he registered as a sex offender or did he somehow get out of that?
idk, but regardless, i would assume that if a person is accused of abuse, cps would do a background check on them. in which case, the sex conviction ould turn up even if he wasn’t registered. i don’t know if this is true or not, but it seems like a common sense thing to do. anyone know about cps procedure?
I was wondering if Rena knew.
i doubt that bitch would have cared. she didn’t care that he was beating and stomping her son to death. what’s a sex offense to a piece of trash like her?
i googled california’s sex offender registry and tried searching him by name, and searching fresno county. the site was acting up and i didn’t get an answer. if you find anything, post it here. you have made me curious as well.
I was tryingto post the other day and screwed it up.
Anyway what pisses me off the most about this is that there was a good father present who cared for his child. BUT typical knee jerking state agencies favor the mother. Court officers litterally dance to the jingle “Dead Beat Dad” while finding even the idea of “Money Making Moms” offensive. Has anyone thought that some dads may be “dead beat” because the money os not going to the children?
But still, the fact remains that a child is dead and there was a way out.
I feel that the real father should be allowed to do whatever he wants to these two POS – nothing could be too cruel. Maybe some of these POS would think twice before abusing a child knowing that such could happen to them in this life!
I agree Fred, the father should be able to do whatever he wants to them both.
I’ve seen/known quite a few CPS or DFS workers, and in my opinion they definitely have a definite shelf life. Enter poor Seth. At what point in a caseworkers carreer does any report become routene, or dismissable? Call me extremeist, but if one has many calls from concerned folks wanting help for a child, how is it justified that they aren’t removed from said home? You know what I’m talking about… remember when we were kids? ‘Safety First’ has been a concept in educational films for decades. Where is the common sense in not applying it to reports of abuse?
So yeah.. Hell for Mom, LeBaron, and CPS investigators that think they know what’s really going on.
It seems that there are so many of them dropping the ball lately. There are some good ones, don’t get me wrong, but there are a butt-load of others giving the profession a really bad name.
From what i understand, CPS prioritizes in this way: They deal with the most obvious problems first. Does the child have suitable clothing? NO. Then write out a docket for a clothing voucher. Does the child have a roof over his head? NO. Then organize housing. Does the child have food in his belly? NO. Write out a grocery voucher.
They deal with the practicle things first and the rest can wait.
Personally i dont care if i was butt nekked and starving. It would be better than being beaten to death. That should have been their biggest priority. I wonder if they even thought about whether he was safe…
this ugly b*** had the NERVE to ask to go to the funeral…???
is it just me, or is it hard to tell which one is the man in these pics, they both look like men, ugly ones at that…
This poor baby, and shame on CPS in his area for failing yet another child… my heart breaks for the father and I hope he can find some peace, someday…
for ms. ireland and the other miscreant,,, rot in pieces you nasty wastes of life… your mothers should have swallowed you!!
Yeah, she is definately one butch looking chick. She in no way resembles a woman. And she is not a woman…a real woman protects her children.
that’s the thing that really made me like, wtf? she had the balls to ask to go to the funeral. geez, if it wasn’t for her lack of a maternal instinct, there would be no need for seth to have a funeral in the first place. stupid bitch. don’t try to pay that poor little boy any respect now, why didn’t you have any for him before it was too late?
CPS fails everyone except for the few. I was in foster care and had a wonderful case worker that helped me with anything that I needed. If I had a problem with a home she was trying to figure out how to get me moved and quickly. I am married now but to this day she has always been a good constant in my life. Then there are caseworkers like the ones that work with my niece and nephews that care only about getting paid. It doesn’t matter how much a child is neglected they just turn away because they are paid extra to care. I hope that CPS worker has a lot of trouble sleeping at night because even if all of her actions were legal and allows her to keep her job, hopefully her morals give her a wake up call or one of her own children asking her how she could have been so heartless.
These two are right scumbags. I feel so sorry for Seth’s biological father as he was trying to get his kids away from these two fuckers. I really want to do serious damage to Rena. How can she just watch a man beat her child? She did not care at all. And the boyfriend? Oh, he deserves for me to stomp on his fucking ugly mug with my New Rock boots. May the two of them get completely stomped in prison. If not, send these fuckers my way when they are released for real punishment.
You’ve got the right idea Omar! I’m with you all the way regarding the system! “Quit coddeling these evil and cruel POS’s and let the townspeople deal with them in the street!” Except that would still be too humane for these 2 monsters!
This depressed me so bad…all I could do was pray. Pray for more faith. Pray to little Seth in heaven, and tell him how much of an angel he is and how much love we have for him even though we aren’t his family. You are in all our hearts little man! You are God’s child now and no-one can ever lay a hand on you or hurt you again Sweet Precious Angel…
A higher power than any of us will deal with this and give it closure. Try to purge your anger and sadness and know that God’s will be done. Amen
You know what, these people rob, steal a childs life, when they do this, the judge should not take account of the low IQs, he should not say oh they were stupid ignorant people and give them a few years, they deserve LIFE. LIFE in prison, they have stolen a life and something so precious even in this day and age, we cant give back. It would be great if we could take the child or the baby to the doctor or scientist and give him a shot and he wakes up, then we tell him or her, all the abuse is over, here is your life now, we cant, these small children pay the price of having the misfortune of being born to pieces of shit… People, if your baby or child bothers you, there is no shame in giving him up, foster homes suck yes, but every once in a while a child will get lucky, hit the lottery so to speak and find a good home to be in… DO NOT KILL YOUR KIDS! its womans job to care for them, make sure your penis is not hitting your kids…
I was in foster care too, several homes the majority of foster parents do it for money, because they are too stupid to go out and get a job, or because the father is a pedophile and wants readily available objects he can abuse… the so called “Christian” ones are the worst, during the day they walk around praising Jesus, at night, the mother will beat the shit out of you and the father will sneak into your bed and molest you, everyone complains about “Violation of my privacy” but if this is what happens during privacy, we all need cameras mounted all over the place, for protection… Im sick of reading about these babies being killed by their Mothers neglect or some sick fucker, but I will read on, I wont turn away and will try to remember them, there are so damned many…
Seth was a beautiful child, look in his eyes, you can see he was going to rise above his shit looking ma and that peice of shit asshole she called a “man” this truly bothers me, I dont know if there is a heaven or a God, sometimes I think there is, sometimes I know, its a fantasy we have to tell ourselves because if we had to face the truth, we couldnt handle it, I only hope there is, so children like Seth and Nixmary and so so so many others can go and find peace and love…
Vaughn and Ireland are scheduled to go to trial in January.
While Ireland has maintained her not-guilty plea since the pair’s arrest after Seth’s death, Vaughn entered a new plea of not guilty by reason on insanity in March this year. Penner ordered three doctors to examine Vaughn and report their findings to the court.
During a hearing on Sept. 16, Vaughn withdrew the plea after the three doctors’ reports sided against him, said his attorney James Lambe. Vaughn maintains he’s not guilty of the murder charge; Lambe said he is exploring whether manslaughter is a more appropriate charge.
From The Fresnobee
why do you put the reading time of each story? are people too lazy to read a story if it’s long?