Mom and boyfriend charged after disabled four-year-old girl found dead in dresser drawer – The Sun
A MOTHER and her live-in boyfriend have been charged with homicide by child abuse after her disabled four-year-old daughter was found dead inside a bedroom dresser.
Jackleen Elizabeth Mullen, 23, and Audrevious Jarrell Williams, 26, were arrested Wednesday morning in South Carolina, the Rock Hill Police Department said.
India Martin was a special-needs and disabled child, Rock Hill Police Det Keenan McCrorey said in court Wednesday, as reported by The Herald.
Little India was found dead inside a dresser drawer in the bedroom the couple shared, according to McCrorey.
He told a judge the girl showed signs of trauma from beating and respiratory distress.
The detective said Mullen "showed no emotion" during the investigation or when detectives found her daughter's body.
"We found this child, dead, stuffed in a drawer," McCrorey said in court before requesting to deny bond to Mullen.
The couple had lied about India's whereabouts to cops earlier in the investigation and claimed the tot was staying with family in North Carolina, according to McCrorey.
Mullen and Williams were silent about the details of their case in court on Wednesday.
Judge Jane Modla denied bond to the couple and said in court that police accused the abusive mom of being India's caregiver at the time of the girl's death.
Cops responded to the couple's home in Rock Hill at around 11:30pm Tuesday after receiving a report from the York County Sheriff's office about a possible child fatality, police told The Herald.
India lived at the home with Mullen and Williams, according to cops, who identified him as Mullen's boyfriend.
The couple share a one-year-old child together, court testimony showed.
Mullen has another child, a four-year-old, and Williams also has a seven-year-old, according to court statements.
Modla ordered that the alleged killers have no contact with the surviving children while their case is pending.
Mullen was arrested a day after she pleaded guilty to a forgery charge in York County criminal court, court records show.
If convicted, she could face life in prison, Modla said in court.
Mullen has a previous criminal record that includes child neglect charges, South Carolina court records show.
She pleaded guilty in 2017 to a felony child neglect charge from a 2016 arrest, according to court records.
The neglectful mom was charged after she gave birth to a baby who had tested positive for cocaine, The Herald reported.
Mullen and Williams' case is being investigated by Rock Hill police, the York County Coroner's Office and the State Law Enforcement Division child fatality unit, officials said.
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