Ernest Lamar Love, a 41-year-old Placentia, California, barber, is charged with murder, torture, and child abuse causing death in the August 2024 killing of six-year-old Chance Crawford, whom Love was babysitting while the boy’s mother worked a night shift. Prosecutors say Love beat Chance with a piece of raw lumber after the child wet his pants, poured hydrogen peroxide into the open wounds, and forced the injured boy to exercise until he collapsed. Chance never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on September 3, 2024. Love has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.1Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Placentia Barber Charged With Murder, Torture for Beating 6-Year-Old Boy He Was Babysitting to Death With a Piece of Lumber
What Prosecutors Say Happened
Chance’s mother, Charlyn Saffore, a nurse’s assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital, dropped him off at Love’s barbershop around 6:30 p.m. on August 29, 2024, the day Chance finished his third day of first grade.2Los Angeles Times. 6-Year-Old O.C. Boy Beaten, Tortured to Death by Babysitter, Prosecutors Say According to prosecutors, Love took Chance to a local park, where the boy urinated in his pants. Surveillance footage then captured Love entering the barbershop around 10:30 p.m. carrying a large piece of raw lumber, with Chance trailing behind him.
Prosecutors allege Love beat the boy with the lumber, poured hydrogen peroxide on the wounds, and forced him to do push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks until he collapsed.3KTLA. Man, 41, Charged in Fatal Beating of Boy, 6, in Southern California Instead of calling 911, Love drove the unconscious child to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, arriving at roughly 1:30 a.m. on August 30. Doctors found flesh missing from Chance’s buttocks, a subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, injuries consistent with violent shaking, and a healing shoulder blade fracture that suggested earlier abuse.1Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Placentia Barber Charged With Murder, Torture for Beating 6-Year-Old Boy He Was Babysitting to Death With a Piece of Lumber Chance was declared brain dead and removed from life support on September 3.4ABC7. Chance Crawford Death: Mother Blindsided After Orange County Babysitter Accused of Killing 6-Year-Old
Love initially told Saffore that Chance had been doing jumping jacks and fell, hitting his head. She said she believed him at first. “That’s what’s hard for me because I believed him when he told me,” she later said.5Atlanta Black Star. California Barber Babysitting 6-Year-Old While Mom Worked Beats Child to Death With Raw Lumber
The Charges and Possible Sentence
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed charges on September 4, 2024, under case number 24NF2300: one felony count of murder, one felony count of torture, and one felony count of child abuse causing death. Deputy District Attorney Bethel Cope-Vega of the Family Protection Unit is prosecuting.6Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Ernest Lamar Love Charging Document
Under California law, torture carries a potential life sentence, and child abuse causing the death of a child under eight is punishable by 25 years to life.7California State Senate. AB 1094 Analysis If convicted on all counts, Love faces a maximum of 32 years to life plus five additional years.6Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Ernest Lamar Love Charging Document He pleaded not guilty.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the case devastating. “Words do not exist to describe the absolute terror this little boy was forced to endure — all at the hands of someone who was supposed to be protecting him, not torturing him to death,” Spitzer said.8USA Today. Ernest Love, Chance Crawford Torture Murder Placentia
Who Chance Crawford Was
Chance was Saffore’s only child. She described him as a light, intelligent and witty, and a gifted young artist whose drawings of Mickey Mouse “looked like they came from a Disney movie.”9GoFundMe. Justice for Chance Crawford A GoFundMe campaign for funeral expenses raised more than $20,000.
Saffore said she was “genuinely blindsided” by Love’s actions. “He died a brutal death. It was brutal. He did not deserve to go out that way,” she said.5Atlanta Black Star. California Barber Babysitting 6-Year-Old While Mom Worked Beats Child to Death With Raw Lumber
How Love Knew the Family
Saffore and Love both attended Amazing Church in Lake Elsinore, where Love served as a minister and self-described prophet. She considered him a trusted friend and a “male figure” in her son’s life.4ABC7. Chance Crawford Death: Mother Blindsided After Orange County Babysitter Accused of Killing 6-Year-Old
After the charges became public, church leaders said Love had previously been suspended from his ministerial roles because of “inappropriate behavior with women.”10MinistryWatch. 6-Year-Old Boy Dies From Injuries Inflicted by Babysitter His Mother Met at Church Lead Pastor Jason Welsh said the congregation was shattered. “We poured so much into him, and he failed us. He failed our faith. He failed us,” Welsh said.11Fox LA. Chance Crawford Death: OC Community Traumatized After 6-Year-Old Allegedly Tortured by Barber
Love’s Prior Conviction for Killing His Own Son
The 2024 charges are not the first time Love has been convicted in the death of a child. In July 1995, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, and spousal abuse in connection with the killing of his own son, Gary Love, who was born in March 1992.12FindLaw. People v. Love, Case No. B331017
According to the appellate record, the toddler had sustained visible injuries while in Love’s care in late 1993. During a motel stay with Love and the child’s mother, a witness heard a baby screaming and thumping sounds. Love claimed the child had fallen down stairs, but an autopsy determined Gary died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, an injury inconsistent with a fall and requiring substantial force such as a hard punch or kick. Love was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 15 years to life for second-degree murder, with a concurrent four-year term for spousal abuse and a stayed sentence on the child abuse count.12FindLaw. People v. Love, Case No. B331017
Denied Resentencing in 2025
In 2022, Love petitioned for resentencing under California Penal Code section 1172.6, which allows certain people convicted under now-narrowed theories of murder liability to seek relief. The trial court denied the petition, and on January 13, 2025, the California Court of Appeal for the Second District affirmed that denial in People v. Love (Case No. B331017). Love argued the jury instructions at his 1995 trial could have allowed a conviction based on criminal negligence rather than actual malice, and suggested the child’s mother may have inflicted the fatal injuries. The court rejected both arguments, finding Love had been prosecuted and convicted as the sole perpetrator who personally harbored malice, with no jury instructions on felony murder, aiding and abetting, or any theory that has since been legislatively narrowed. He was ineligible for resentencing as a matter of law.12FindLaw. People v. Love, Case No. B331017
How Love came to be free and working as a barber in Placentia after a 15-years-to-life sentence for killing his first child is not detailed in the available record.