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Suspects in boy's murder part of troubled family

Posted at 6:00 PM, Jun 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-05 10:38:31-04

Lillian Lisette Roberts, 43, watched her boyfriend, Gregory Walker, beat 13-year-old Deontae Mitchell, say sources.

Detroit Police believe Walker kidnapped, then killed Deontae because he was upset that the teen and his cousin picked up $70 he dropped outside a liquor store on Detroit's east side Tuesday night.

Sources tell 7 Action News that Roberts' stepson, 30-year-old Ernest Coleman, helped Walker assault the teen whose body was found Thursday morning near Harper and Baldwin.

It appears Deontae had been strangled.

Coleman has also been arrested in the case. Roberts' uncle, 51-year-old Roy Portis, is also under arrest.

After Deontae's murder, police say Portis drove his niece and Walker to a Days Inn in Toledo where he rented a room for them. 

And it seems Roberts, who has convictions for uttering/publishing and malicious destruction of property, is related to a lot of trouble.

In December, her 24-year-old daughter, Mariah Thomas, was charged with two counts of murder for her alleged role in a deadly firebombing that took the lives of two people.

Walker, Roberts, Coleman and Portis all remain in police custody. But Walker is sitting in a hospital bed because, sources say, when Detroit Police, Toledo SWAT, and the FBI took him into custody Thursday morning, he began complaining of chest pains.

Sources believe it is Walker's attempt to stall going to jail, but that's what awaits the ex-con.

One source said Walker doesn't want to face that he's a coward who killed a child over $70.