Five alleged cult members charged in baby?s death

Police say they’ve charged the boy’s mother, Ria “Princess Marie” Ramkissoon, 21, and the alleged cult’s leader, Queen Antoinette, 40, with conspiracy to commit the first-degree murder of Javon Thompson, who went missing from Baltimore about two years ago. Also charged in Javon’s death are Marcus Cobbs, 21; Trevia Williams, 21; and Steven Bynum, 42 — all of whom at one point lived on the 300 block of North Robinson Street.

Javon’s grandmother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, of Baltimore, said the boy’s death has left a hole in her life.

“I felt like everything in me was gone,” she told The Examiner. “I loved that little boy. I tried so hard to get him away from that cult. Nobody would help.”

Vernon Parker, a Baltimore homicide detective, said cult members killed the baby in early 2007.

“Javon Thompson was deprived of food and water because he was non-compliance with existing rules of the cult,” Parker wrote in charging documents. “The child was viewed as a ‘demon.’ ”

Parker wrote that “Javon died in the arms of Ria Ramkissoon and that medical assistance was never sought.”

Cult members from “One Mind Ministries” packed the remains of Javon into a green suitcase and traveled to Philadelphia, where they discarded the boy’s remains, police said.

In April, Baltimore and Philadelphia police searched a shed on the 700 block of South 13th Street and recovered decomposing human remains inside a suitcase.

Khadan-Newton said investigators told her cult members grew angry after Javon would not say “amen” at mealtime, even though the baby was just learning to say basic words.

A witness also told police Javon had grown so skinny he was a skeleton.

After his death, Javon was placed on a mattress, on which cult members said God would resurrect him from the dead, documents state.

Ramkissoon was held without bail at the Baltimore City jail Monday. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 8.

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