Really tragic story about one really messed-up "family."
Ye gawds...
District Attorney: 17-year-old won’t face charges in death
By KEN RITTER, The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 17-year-old taken into custody after her severely malnourished 4-month-old daughter was hospitalized and the corpse of a 3-year-old was found at a North Las Vegas home is a victim and won’t face criminal charges, the district attorney in Las Vegas said Monday.
The teen was released Monday from juvenile detention into the custody of county child protective services, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said.
“This child is a victim in this case and can best receive appropriate and necessary services through the dependency court system and family services,” Wolfson said in a statement.
North Las Vegas police Officer Aaron Patty said the 4-month-old child was released from a hospital and turned over Monday to the custody of Clark County Child Protective Services.
Police in North Las Vegas are continuing to probe what they have described as a three-generation case of child abuse involving the girl’s mother, Kellie Cherie Phillips, 38, a man she described as her stepfather, Jondrew Magil Lachaux, 39, and the discovery of the couple’s 3-year-old daughter dead in the back seat of a broken-down car in the garage of a home on Wood Thrush Place.
Lachaux, an ex-convict, was arrested April 7 and Phillips was arrested April 8 on allegations that they abandoned the teen and the toddler in a North Las Vegas house and took their other five children to Oakland, California.
The other children — ages 1, 4, 7, 8 and 9 — were found with Phillips in good health. They have been placed in the custody of family services.
Lachaux and Phillips, who are not married, were being held pending court appearances this week on felony charges of child abuse.
The teen told police that her mother didn’t know she was pregnant with Lachaux’s child when the rest of the family left last year in a crowded rental car. She said she gave birth at home last November with no medical care.
The girl told police her sickly 3-year-old sister died several weeks ago, and that Lachaux returned to the house in late March and moved the decomposing corpse to an old Mercedes sedan parked in the garage, covering it with old pizza boxes.
http://wbay.com/ap/district-attorney-17-year-old-wont-face-charges-in-death/
= new reply since forum marked as read
. And yes - the 17 year old is a victim. I'm glad she is in cps - it's not perfect. But she needs a home too. Poor kid. Both of them.