"If you ask me, all of this started when the lights got cut off," Green says. "All of a sudden I would be there using the phone, and I'd look up and Sheryleen would be gone." Green says that oftentimes she would end up watching the children because she didn't feel safe leaving them, but unfortunately the night of June 2 was not one of those times.
Berryman says that she never intended to stay away the entire night, but that she fell asleep watching movies at her boyfriend's. While Berryman slept, someone was abusing her child at home.
Police say Sheryleen Berryman left her five children alone with her 11-year-old sister. One of them died.
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But who was that someone?
Both Berryman and her mother told the Observer that they suspect someone else, but both were advised by the 11-year-old's lawyer not to name the suspect. Green says a neighbor told her that he saw a male family member enter Berryman's home at 4 a.m. the day Cedric was killed. Green says the man had struck Berryman's children in the past.
"He always used to hit on the kids and holler at them," she says. "He'd come into the house talking about 'Who's the master?'"
The one thing everyone agrees upon is that Cheryl Jackson's youngest daughter did not hurt Cedric.
Esther Donald supervises the youth group at Love Temple Full Gospel Church in Longview, which the family attends. Church members say the girl was a peacemaker, not violent. "One time we were putting on a play, and some children started arguing. [She] said, 'We were just sitting in church talking about Jesus, and now you all are acting like this,'" Donald says.
Church members have written letters to the girl, but she is allowed to receive only two letters a week. But somehow Jackson's daughter is keeping her faith, and Donald has heard that the girl has helped two other children at the detention center to become Christians.
Berryman says that she and her sister have written to each other. In one letter, Berryman's sister writes, "God is my witness that I didn't do anything to hurt Boo." Boo was Cedric's nickname.
This summer, Jackson had planned on allowing her daughter to play on a baseball team, but now that all seems so far away. Jackson can barely meet her bills because she is unable to put in a 40-hour workweek because of the time that she spends in Dallas.
"I pray to the good Lord to make me stronger," Jackson says.
Another concern for Jackson and Berryman is Berryman's four remaining children, now split up among foster homes. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marla Sheeley says the children are well and receiving therapy. Six-year-old Aleisha frequently asks for her mother.
Jackson says she was not informed about the first custody hearing held a few weeks ago about her grandchildren. Berryman instead told a close friend and cousin of her children, who plans to seek custody.
Jackson's mind is eased knowing that someone in the family is seeing after the children, but she would prefer to have custody herself. Long before any of this happened, she had a feeling that she should convince Berryman to give her custody of some of the children.
"I wish I had just took all the kids," Jackson says in hindsight. "I should've just taken them all."
