Trial set for Oct. 16 in DeSoto boy’s death

by Daphne Brown of DeSoto TODAY

Terence Potts is set to stand trial Oct. 16 in the death of his 12-year-old son Jonathon in March.

Criminal District Court 4 Judge John Creuzot will hear evidence in the case of injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Other charges include a probation violation for a controlled substance of cocaine.

DeSoto police arrested Potts, 40, March 25 in connection with the death of Jonathon, who had been a student at DeSoto East Middle School.

Both were in the family minivan about mid-morning March 25, stopped at a gas station, when Potts called 911 to report his son had stopped breathing. Jonathon died at Methodist Charlton Medical Center the same day. The official medical finding determined Jonathon died due to blunt force trauma.

Emergency medical personnel responding to the scene reported old and new bruises on the boy's body.

Jonathon's mother, Tracye Johnson, also was arrested a week after Jonathon's death for injury to a child with serious bodily injury. She has an April 6, 2009, trial date in Creuzot's court.

According to Dallas County records Potts, 40, and Johnson, 35, married in 1997. The family includes two younger female children, who were removed from the home after the father's arrest. The family resided in DeSoto at the time of Jonathon's death.