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Three people charged with murder of three-year-old Zyon Thompson

Posted at 6:20 PM, Jul 13, 2015
and last updated 2015-07-13 18:20:05-04

HENRICO, Va. – Three people have been charged with murder in the death of a three-year-old boy. Zyon Thompson was taken to the hospital April 24. He died two days later.

A Henrico babysitter, her husband, and a third man were arrested and charged following his death.

Initially Alexis Denise Raiford, 32, and Clarence Raiford, 35, of Oakleys Lane in Henrico were charged with child abuse and neglect.

Alexis Denise Raiford, William Cory Moore and Clarence Raiford Jr. (PHOTO: Henrico Police)

William Cory Moore, 25, was also charged with child abuse and neglect. Moore lived with Raiford and her husband.

Barbara Wilson, the grandmother of Zyon, said she was uncertain of what happened inside the eastern Henrico home where Zyon was being cared for before he was rushed to the hospital.

“I really don’t know, but I know that whatever it was, it was so traumatic that when he got to the hospital his heart had stopped,” Wilson said.

Wilson said a doctor managed to get her grandson’s heart beating again, but that he was brain dead.

“I am not responsible for Zyon’s death,” Alexis Raiford said in a jailhouse interview with CBS 6. “I loved Zyon like he was my own child, I promise you that.”

She  said that sometime during the day the little boy had gotten into some crabs and some seasoning.  “You could hear something wrong with the breathing,” Raiford said. She took him to the hospital.

“There was no abuse,” she said.  She said she was not at home at the time. He was with her husband and Moore.

Zyon Thompson (PHOTO: Thompson family photo)

William Moore, who lived with Raiford and her husband, said he did nothing wrong. He said he doesn’t know why he was charged with abuse, and added he felt sympathy for the family who lost their child.

“I feel very sad, but I know I had nothing to do with it even though I lived there,” Moore said from Henrico Jail.

Clarence Raiford declined a request for an interview.

The next court date is July 30, 2015.

Anyone with additional information about this case can click here to email in a tip. Stay with CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for updates on this developing story.

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