Records show concerns about Jhorden Clay’s safety were reported while his father continued to keep the 4-year-old beyond the planned visit.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Jhorden Clay was supposed to spend two days with his father in April 2023. Instead, the 4-year-old remained with him for nearly a month as his mother tried to get him back and raised concerns about injuries she could see during video calls, according to records reviewed after the boy’s death.
That extended stay is now one of the defining facts in a case that ended more than three years later with Jhorden’s father, Marquavious Ware, receiving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree manslaughter. Ware was originally charged with murder and assault after Jhorden died May 3, 2023, but he pleaded guilty to the reduced offense under an agreement reached before sentencing. The criminal case establishes Ware’s manslaughter conviction. A separate lawsuit by Jhorden’s estate focuses on another question: what happened after authorities were warned about the child before he died.
The timeline began in early April when Jhorden’s mother allowed Ware to take the boy for a short visit. A 2024 report said Ware took his son April 7 for what was to have been two days. He did not return him, according to accounts given to investigators. Ware later told police that Jhorden had been in his care for approximately a month. During that time, the mother’s access to her son was largely through FaceTime, and she told authorities she saw bruising and other signs that caused her concern. She also said Jhorden was frightened of Ware and wanted to be with her.
By April 19, the Oregon Department of Human Services had received a report containing several pieces of information about Jhorden’s situation, according to the agency’s later self-assessment. The report said the mother had taken a screenshot showing a concerning bump or bruise on Jhorden’s forehead during a FaceTime call. It also conveyed that the boy had remained with Ware for weeks because his father would not return him, that Jhorden was allegedly afraid of Ware and that Ware was described as heavy-handed in his discipline. The agency nevertheless closed the matter during screening rather than opening an investigation, its later review found.
Jhorden’s mother also sought intervention through other channels. She told investigators that she had contacted police and provided evidence of what she believed were injuries. According to reporting later cited by Law&Crime, she said she was told there was little officers could do because Ware was the child’s father. Local reporting also said she attempted to obtain a restraining order against Ware and that the request was denied. Available reporting did not clearly establish why the court denied it. Those efforts occurred while the visit continued well beyond its expected end.
On May 3, the case changed from a custody and child-safety concern into a death investigation. A relative who was at Ware’s home told investigators that Ware had been angry at Jhorden after the boy wet the bed and brought Skittles into bed. The relative described hearing Ware yell and later seeing the child in serious medical distress, according to the probable cause affidavit. When authorities examined the apartment, investigators reported seeing what appeared to be blood in the bedroom and bathroom. Jhorden was rushed to a hospital but did not survive.
Medical findings gave investigators a picture of injuries accumulated over time. Doctors reported bruising on Jhorden’s face, neck, torso, arms and legs, among other areas. Some bruises were thought to have been only hours old, while others could have dated back weeks. Records also described scars, small burns and severe malnutrition and dehydration. A medical examiner concluded that the child died from homicidal blunt-force trauma to his abdomen. The medical evidence, together with witness accounts, became central to the criminal case against Ware.
Another child who had been staying in the home told investigators that he had witnessed Ware kicking and stomping Jhorden, according to prosecutors’ account of the evidence. Ware, however, admitted to a narrower range of physical discipline. Court records said he acknowledged slapping Jhorden’s hand, forcing him to stand in a corner with a foot raised and striking the bottom of his foot with a hanger. At his eventual sentencing, Ware’s lawyer said he regretted the death, did not intend to kill his son and believed another person who had been in the home caused some of the injuries.
Ware was 19 when Jhorden died. He was arrested in 2023 and remained jailed as the case moved through court. By the time of his July 2026 sentencing, Ware was 23 and had already spent more than three years in custody. The plea agreement reduced the original murder and assault allegations to second-degree manslaughter, and Ware received credit for the time he had already served. The 10-year term is therefore measured from a period of incarceration that began shortly after Jhorden’s death rather than from the 2026 sentencing date alone.
The warnings during the extended visit gained additional significance after the Oregon Department of Human Services reviewed its own conduct. The agency concluded that its handling of the April 19 report had been inadequate, according to records later discussed in Oregon legislative material. Instead of merely presenting a single unexplained bruise, the report combined an injury concern with information that a planned two-day visit had lasted for weeks, that the custodial parent was unable to get the child back and that the child reportedly feared the parent who was keeping him. The department’s conclusion that the report should have been investigated now forms part of the factual backdrop to the civil case.
Jhorden’s estate has sued the state’s human-services agency and the city of Portland, accusing public officials of failing to protect him despite warnings before his death. Public reports have described different monetary totals at different stages of the litigation: a 2024 account referred to a $23 million lawsuit, while more recent reporting has described a $17 million action. The claims remain civil allegations unless and until resolved in court, and the available sources reviewed here do not show a final ruling assigning liability.
The criminal prosecution, by contrast, has ended with Ware’s guilty plea and sentence. Its resolution does not erase the questions raised by the weeks between the scheduled end of Jhorden’s visit and his death. The continuing lawsuit now places much of the focus on that interval — when his mother said she was asking for her son to be returned, when an injury was visible on a video call and when an agency later concluded that a report about him should not have been closed without investigation.
Author note: Last updated August 24, 2026.