ATLANTA — 11Alive has obtained the arrest warrants for a man charged with the 2004 cold case murder of his 3-year-old son.
Christopher Houston Sr. has been charged with murder and first-degree cruelty to children. He is accused of repeatedly hitting his 3-year-old son in the head to the point of death.
These are not the first charges against Houston Sr. Arrest records also showed an extensive list of charges against him, including rape, child molestation, sodomy, aggravated child molestation and others.
Christopher Houston Jr. was killed on April 29, 2004. His death, ruled a homicide, was caused by craniocerebral trauma. He had a displaced left femur, a subarachnoid hemorrhage overlying both parietal lobes of his brain and multiple contusions on his head, back and arms. The bridging veins between his brain and the tissue around it were lacerated.
Houston Sr. and his girlfriend at the time, Visa Hampton, were both interviewed after Houston Jr.'s death. They said the boy was playing outside and then came in to lie down because he was not feeling well. When they checked on him two hours later, he was unresponsive, the warrants described.
Det. Summer Benton was assigned to the cold case in 2023, the warrants say. In July 2023, investigators began reaching out to Houston Jr.'s maternal family. On July 10, 2024, they spoke to a sister of Houston Jr., who had not been born yet when he died. The sister lived with Houston Sr. from 2021-2022. She told investigators that one night, she asked what happened to her brother, and Houston Sr. responded with, "I didn't mean to do it; I didn't mean to kill him."
On July 14, investigators learned from Houston Jr.'s mother that another sibling, who was 2 years old at the time of Houston Jr.'s death, witnessed the incident and had their first memory of it a few years later. She said that Houston Jr. accidentally spilled some white powder, which enraged Houston Sr., who then hit the 3-year-old multiple times in the head and took him to another room. That sibling was unavailable for an interview, but investigators plan to speak with them, the warrants explain.
On July 16, investigators spoke with another sibling of Houston Jr., who had been told about his death and shared the same story about the white powder.