Sherrilynn Hawkins, 42, of Dresher, was Tylim's mother. (Image courtesy of Montgomery County DA)
An Upper Dublin Township woman will face a homicide trial in connection with charges she neglected her 21-year-old care dependent son who had cerebral palsy and died in September 2024.
Sherrilynn Hawkins, 43, of the 1100 block of Market Street in the Dresher, will head to trial on November 15.
She entered not guilty pleas to charges of first- and third-degree murder, neglect of care of dependent person, abuse of care of dependent person, theft and conspiracy to commit theft in connection with the Sept.18, 2024, death of her son, Tylim Hatchett, 21, who lived with her at the Upper Dublin residence.
Hatchett lived at the Residences at the Promenade in Upper Dublin Township, but his existence was likely tortured, as police said he was left alone an estimated 82% of the time leading up to his death. Police found Tylim on the dead, on the floor, in his apartment on Sept. 19.
Tylim was described by Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele as being non-verbal, blind, deaf, and wheel-chair-bound as he suffered from cerebral palsy. He required complete care to eat, drink, bathe, take medication, and survive overall. But those paid to do so, including his parents, neglected to over a lengthy period of time.
Steele said that a very thorough and vast investigation was conducted by the Upper Dublin Township Police, which discovered “through a number of means” the neglect Tylim was privy to across a lengthy period of time. Abington Hospital records, for example, had Tylim weighed during a February visit. He weighed only 91 pounds then, and by September, at his death, was down to 59 pounds.
The average weight for a man in the United States, age 20 to 29 years, is 188.6 pounds. A weight of 59 pounds would be healthy only for a child around age 10.
The county looked to its coroner’s office for a cause of death, which was found to be “complications of cerebral palsy in the setting of neglect.” The death was ruled a homicide.
“I credit detective work in this case,” said Steele. “They put a lot of hours and time to make these determinations, to show where these individuals were, that they were not with Tylim, which they were being paid to be.”
Hawkins will face life imprisonment if convicted of the first-degree murder charge. She will not face the death penalty.
“When you have a case where omission is the criminal act, you look at a situation where they have put this 21-year-old in an apartment, away from help and care, and secluded him in this area, and have not provided any of the things they were supposed to and were contracted to do during this period of time,” said Steele. “Everybody involved in this case is affected by this. This individual couldn’t care for himself. He was totally dependent on care, a care-dependent person. And they starved him to death. They just didn’t provide for him.”
Hawkins surrendered to police on Dec. 30, 2024.
