Text messages, physical punishment, and a broken belt buckle are detailed in court records in the days surrounding the 5-year-old boy’s death.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Two adults are now charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 5-year-old Newport News boy after investigators said an autopsy found fatal internal injuries from blunt-force trauma and court records revealed conversations about the physical punishment he allegedly endured before his death.

The case began July 16, when Newport News police were called at about 2:19 p.m. to a home in the 300 block of Walden Pond Court for an unresponsive child. Medics attempted lifesaving measures and transported the boy to a hospital, where he died later that evening. His mother, 27-year-old Katrina Marie Sudberry, was arrested the next day and charged with second-degree murder and felony child abuse. Police later arrested her boyfriend, 30-year-old Gregory Glenn Martin, who also faces a second-degree murder charge, child abuse or neglect causing serious injury and a charge related to sex-offender registry information. The charges are allegations and the criminal cases remain pending.

Investigators initially focused publicly on Sudberry after police said she acknowledged using physical punishment on her son. According to court records reported by local news organizations, Sudberry told detectives she disciplined the boy with her hands and a belt and also made him perform exercises such as push-ups and wall squats. An earlier account said she had been the child’s caretaker during the weeks before his death, but later court records and text-message evidence placed Martin in the home and described his participation in punishment as well. Those later disclosures materially changed the public picture of the investigation from a case centered on one parent to one in which police accused two adults of criminal responsibility.

The morning of July 16 became a key part of the investigation. Sudberry told authorities that the boy was lethargic and had vomited earlier that day, according to the court records. She said she monitored him while he remained in bed and she did housework. Other records made public later said she also left the boy alone with Martin for about 45 minutes while she was away. When she returned, investigators said, she noticed that the buckle had broken off a belt that both adults allegedly used for discipline. Sudberry told investigators the belt had not been broken before she left. Police later seized a belt and a detached buckle from the home as part of their investigation.

Sudberry told investigators that she later found her son unresponsive on the floor and called her mother before calling 911, according to court records. When detectives asked why she had not sought medical care earlier, the documents said Sudberry told them she “knew how it would look,” referring to bruising visible on the child. Officers arriving at the apartment found the boy with extensive bruising, according to the records. That statement about delaying medical attention became a significant part of the timeline described in the charging materials because authorities said the child had already shown signs of illness before emergency responders were called.

The medical examiner’s findings provided the basis for police to treat the death as a homicide. Newport News police said the boy died from internal injuries caused by blunt-force trauma. Court records described severe damage within his abdominal cavity, including injuries to his liver and kidney as well as damage involving his stomach, diaphragm and intestines. The descriptions in the documents are extensive, but the central medical finding is that the child suffered serious internal trauma before his death. Investigators also said patterns of bruising on his body were consistent with forms of physical punishment that Sudberry had described during interviews. Police announced the homicide investigation after receiving the autopsy findings.

Later-obtained text messages gave investigators another source of evidence about what allegedly happened before July 16. In one July 7 exchange described in court records, Sudberry told Martin the boy had developed additional bruises while older bruises were still fading. Martin replied by discussing whether Sudberry would allow him to continue physically punishing the child, according to the documents. In another exchange reported from the records, Martin told Sudberry he would stop striking the boy and would instead limit punishment to exercises. The messages, which prosecutors and investigators may use as evidence, are allegations contained in the developing criminal case and have not been tested at trial.

Those exchanges are important because they appear to document discussions between the adults before the fatal medical emergency, rather than relying only on statements made after police arrived. Investigators said Sudberry sent Martin photographs of the boy’s injuries during some of those conversations. The records also conflict with an earlier version in which Sudberry was described as the only person caring for the child during the period before his death. The later evidence said Martin lived with Sudberry and had been alone with the child on July 16. Authorities have not publicly detailed which specific injury they contend was inflicted by which defendant, or exactly when each of the fatal injuries occurred.

A neighbor provided a separate account of seeing Sudberry and the child shortly before the emergency. Elena Sierson told WAVY that she saw them outside the apartment complex the day before police were called. Sierson said she and her children tried to speak to the boy and described Sudberry as forcefully pulling or dragging him toward a vehicle. The neighbor’s account does not establish how the boy suffered the injuries found during the autopsy, but it provides a reported observation of the child and his mother during the period immediately preceding his death. Police have not publicly identified the boy beyond initials used in court records, and his full name has not been necessary to report the case.

The sequence of arrests shows how the investigation expanded after the medical examiner’s findings and the collection of additional evidence. Sudberry was taken into custody July 17 after police announced that the death was being investigated as a homicide. Martin was charged later, after investigators examined records that included text communications and information about who had been caring for the child. His additional registry-related charge is separate from the allegations concerning the boy’s death. Publicly available reporting has not identified defense attorneys speaking on behalf of either defendant, and no plea or trial determination establishing guilt was reported in the sources reviewed for this story.

The evidence described so far comes from several different sources: the medical examiner’s conclusions, statements attributed to Sudberry during police interviews, physical evidence recovered from the apartment, text messages between the defendants and a neighbor’s observation. Taken together, those materials explain why investigators moved from responding to an unresponsive child to treating the death as a homicide and eventually charging two adults. They do not, however, resolve every question that a court may ultimately have to consider. Authorities have not publicly assigned each individual injury to a particular act or defendant, nor have they released a complete minute-by-minute account of the period before the 911 call.

Both Sudberry and Martin were being held in the Newport News Jail in the latest reporting reviewed for this article. Their next court appearances were scheduled for Sept. 9. Because that date has not yet arrived, the charges remain unresolved and both defendants are presumed innocent unless proved guilty in court. The investigation has continued as authorities assemble the medical, physical and electronic evidence surrounding the boy’s death.

Author note: Last updated August 24, 2026.