Mom, boyfriend charged in death of 4-year-old

The mother of a 4-year-old boy who died under mysterious circumstances at his southeast Atlanta home has been charged with felony murder and child cruelty, Atlanta police said Wednesday evening.

Police also filed the same charges against Chaunteria Reachell's live-in boyfriend.

The boy, Jerrius Reachell, was taken to Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital Tuesday afternoon after he stopped breathing in the bathtub of his house on Redford Drive, police said.

An autopsy into the boy's cause of death was still pending, said Atlanta police spokeswoman Sylvia Abernathy.

The boyfriend, Carlos White, was initially only charged with child cruelty after interviews with him revealed he has struck the child in the past to discipline him.

Abernathy said both Chaunteria Reachell and her boyfriend were in the house when the boy lost consciousness Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Division of Family and Children Services said that workers had been called to the house once, about four years ago, to check on accusations of inadequate supervision.