HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 14-month-old girl was taken to a hospital with broken bones, cuts and even bite marks over the weekend. She later died from her injuries. Now the little girl's mother and her boyfriend are facing charges in connection with the death.
Inside a south Houston motel on June 29, a 14-month-old girl by the name of Melanie spent some of the last hours of her life.
"Broken bones, bite marks all over her body, bleeding and cuts to her feet, hemorrhaging to her eyes. Her injuries were substantial and subsequently she passed away," prosecutor Anna Emmons said.
She was in the room with her mother, 23-year-old Ginyear Jones and her boyfriend, 23-year-old John Caldwell, when a concerned relative stopped by to check on the baby.
"The 14-month-old's grandmother went to check on the baby and recovered the baby from a motel, took her home and observed obvious and visible injuries to the baby and she called 911," Emmons said..
We tracked down the last known address for Caldwell, who is now charged with serious bodily injury to a child.
"That's my grandson," a woman at the door told Eyewitness News.
"Well, you know he is in jail, right?" we asked her.
"Yes, I know that," she said.
She claims she hasn't heard from him for at least a month.
"He didn't know that baby was hurt that bad when he said the baby fell off the bed or something like that. That's what that girl told him when he got back," the woman said.
Jones has had repeated run-ins with Child Protective Services, as her previous children have been born with drugs in their system.
"We've actually taken custody of all of her children. She's had six other children since 2006 through 2011. We terminated all her parental rights, and all of those children have since been adopted," CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.
CPS says they were unaware Jones gave birth to another child and can only open an investigation when a complaint is made. As for the two suspects, once an autopsy is complete, the serious bodily injury to a child charges maybe upgraded to capital murder.
