Roseville dad sentenced for adopted 9-year-old son’s death in ‘house of horror’
Cyrus Blakley’s three sisters remember their 9-year-old brother as a playful and fun boy who had big dreams for his future and a selflessness that seemed to define him. They said they used to enjoy imagining what they could do and what their lives would bring.
“As siblings, we shared so much supporting one another in ways that helped us all remember to smile,” his sisters said in a written statement read in court by a victim’s advocate. “Though, it was obvious Cyrus was destined to be an angel. Clearly it happened too soon, and we miss him. Now, Cyrus visits us at the parks and other times we are outside. We cannot hear him, but know our bold brother is there arriving on each occasion in the form of a beautiful butterfly, reminding us to spread our wings and fly.”
Cyrus was killed last year at his Roseville home with his six siblings forced to hear his cries in anguish and gasps for breath as he was beaten and suffocated to death in his living room.
His three biological sisters, who were not identified in court, were adopted along with their brother by Cory and Kimberly Blakley.
His sisters’ statement was read in court Wednesday morning before a Placer Superior Court judge sentenced their adoptive father, 39-year-old Cory Albert Blakley, to 15 years to life in prison for Cyrus’ murder.
The Placer County District Attorney’s Office charged the Blakleys with murder, torture and child abuse in the boy’s death. In late February, Cory Blakley pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, along with an enhancement for committing the crime against a vulnerable victim.
The father also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of dissuading a witness, which resulted in a four-year prison sentence that will be served concurrently. He additionally pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of child endangerment with a six-year prison sentence also to be served concurrently.
The dissuading a witness charge against the father stems from what the prosecution said allegedly happened after the boy stopped breathing and his mother carried his limp body upstairs. Cory Blakley is heard on home security cameras telling one of Cyrus’ siblings, “If you don’t want the cops to come, you need to stop yelling. Listen. Relax,” prosecutors have said in filed court documents.
The District Attorney’s Office dropped felony charges of torture and child abuse against the father. The convicted man only spoke in court Wednesday to tell the judge he understood a court protective order that forbids him to contact the children in this case and to stay at least 100 yards away from their homes, schools and vehicles.
Cyrus’ siblings are listed as victims in the misdemeanor child endangerment charges against both parents.
The father will eventually become eligible for parole. If he is released from prison after serving his sentence, the judge ordered Cory Blakley to spend the rest of his life on parole.
“I firmly believe the defendant should spend the rest of his life in prison,” said Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ow, one of the prosecutors in the murder case.
The prosecutors and Blakley’s defense attorney, Barry Zimmerman, have said in court that the guilty plea was not the result of any “promises or considerations” in exchange for testimony against his wife in her pending trial. They said the only promise the prosecution made to the now-convicted father is the 15 years to life in prison sentence for the murder charge.
On Wednesday, the defense attorney said his client “is completely and utterly destroyed about what his inaction caused.” He said Cory Blakley is trying to find some solace in carrying forward.
“Cory Blakley did not want to go to trial. He wanted to plea guilty,” Zimmerman told the judge. “He did not want to go through it. He did not want to put his children through it.”
Accused mother still faces murder trial
Kimberly Rachel Blakley, 38, still faces charges of murder and torture in her adopted son’s death and remains in custody at the Placer County Jail.
She is scheduled to return to court June 20 to determine when her murder trial will start. It’s unclear whether Cory Blakley will testify in his wife’s trial.
The Blakleys had seven children — two biological children and five who were adopted. They all lived together in a home on New England Drive, just east of Sunrise Boulevard in Roseville.
On Wednesday, the judge heard victim impact statements from some of Cyrus’ siblings and their now legal guardians who were not in the courtroom and spoke via a video conferencing call. The children’s identities were not disclosed in court; only their initials were used to ensure their privacy.
“It really made me sad,” said D.B.B., one of Cyrus’ brothers. “I really want him to be on earth with us.”
Ariel Black, who became D.B.B.’s legal guardian shortly before the boy’s 7th birthday, said the child came to her “so thoroughly conditioned by years of abuse” from the Blakleys that the boy believed he was only allowed to sleep on the floor. She said he’s unable to sleep alone and is terrified of the dark after being locked in closets overnight.
She said the boy remembers the children being under constant surveillance at home by Ring-brand cameras installed inside the Roseville home. He also remembered eating dog food, because he was so hungry and it tasted good.
“These are not the recollections of a child that they should carry,” Black told the judge. “This is not a case of a lapse in judgment. This is a story of a man who over the course of 14 years knowingly and repeatedly abused, neglected, isolated, malnourished, surveilled corrupted seven children that we know of. What happened was not incidental, it was calculated, systemic and predatory.”
Black and two other legal guardians of Cyrus’ siblings alleged that Cory Blakley forced the children to watch pornography in their home.
Jason Black, one of the legal guardians of the Blakleys’ biological daughter K.B., told the judge that Cory Blakley sexually abused the girl and forced the children to watch the pornographic material as part of his so-called “family nights.” He also alleged that Kimberly Blakley watched her husband sexually abuse their daughter.
“Cory’s actions have deeply impacted K.B.’s ability to trust,” Jason Black told the judge. “She’s terrified of what Cory might do to her if he ever sees her again. Her biggest fear is that he will get out of prison and find her and hurt her, hurt other children. That fear keeps her up at night.”
The defense attorney argued that it was unfair for the court to allow these new allegations of sexual abuse without due process to be included in the victim impact statements, which could affect his client’s parole hearings.
The prosecutor argued that the District Attorney’s Office was aware of these sexual abuse allegations, and there has been some investigation, but they do not believe they will file any sexual abuse charges against Cory Blakley “at any time soon.” But Ow told the judge it was important to allow the victims to speak about their experience with the defendant.
The judge allowed the those allegations to be included in Wednesday’s hearing.
“You’re my dad. I felt scared. It hurt my body,” K.B. said in a written statement. “I think you’re a bad man and I never wanna see you again.”
Jason Black said his now adoptive daughter is still haunted by being forced to witness her brother’s murder.
“Your Honor, there is no true way to measure the destruction left in the wake of Cory Albert Blakley’s actions,” Jason Black said. “But today we wanna try not only for our daughter, K.B., who survived the unthinkable, but for every child who lived in that house of horror.”
The boy’s murder
About 6 p.m. Feb. 2, 2024, officers and firefighters responded to a medical aid call at the family’s home. The officers found the boy unresponsive. Cyrus died three days later at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The incident that led to Cyrus’ death began shortly after 5 p.m. on the family’s living room couch, where the mother placed the child between her legs in a “vice-grip-like hold,” pulled down his pants and hit his buttocks nine times, according to the prosecution. The boy was face down with his torso on a couch cushion while his mother was directly on top of him.
In filed court documents, prosecutors have said Ring-brand cameras installed inside the family’s Roseville home captured sounds of the mother “striking” the child and the boy’s “repeated apologies, gasps for breath and cries that he could not breathe, followed by silence.”
In a preliminary hearing last year, prosecutors argued the mother was “exacting revenge” on Cyrus after he told his classmates or school officials that his dogs had died, and he was forced to take the pets outside.
Deputy District Attorney Andrew Braden, the other prosecutor in the murder case, has argued that the mother could be heard in the video repeatedly saying Child Protective Services was going to come and take the children away because Cyrus didn’t care about the family.
Prosecutors allege that the mother continued this abuse for about 40 minutes as the boy’s father did nothing to stop it.
Cyrus died of “mechanical asphyxiation” and suffocated to death, Ow has said in court documents.
In court Wednesday, the prosecutor told the judge that Cory Blakley stood in his kitchen with a clear view of his wife beating and sitting on Cyrus as the boy cried for his father’s help. Ow showed in court eight minutes of video clips captured on the family’s indoor security cameras; the boy’s screams and cries as he’s being beaten could be heard on the video footage.
Ow said video from the camera in the living room is missing, because Cory Blakley deleted it that same evening as investigators tried to determine what happened to the boy. She told the judge Cyrus’ 200-pound mother sat on the 80-pound boy as she spanked him for 30 minutes until he couldn’t be heard on the video anymore. The Blakleys waited another 10 minutes before Kimberly Blakley called 911.
“Cyrus not only endured the physical pain, he spent 30 minutes with the fear of death,” Ow said in court. “He could not breathe. He knew he was dying. He wanted to live, and there was nothing he could do to get her off of him.”
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 2:24 PM.
