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A sickening sign was stuck on a door locking in a dying eight-year-old boy police found in a skeletal state.
“Don’t give Navin any food,” a grim poster ordered. The dreadful scene greeted cops who’d gone to the poor lad’s home in Illinois, in the United States, following a call from his mum. As well as being unresponsive, Navin Jones was in an emaciated state when he was taken to hospital in March last year, where he tragically died.
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Navin weighed an agonisingly light 30lb as a result of being in a locked room where he was covered in urine and s*** with evidence of physical abuse on his face, torso, arms and legs.
The chilling note on the door read: “Don't give Navin any food or drink. Do not let him out of the room. He has what he needs until I wake up.”
His mum Stephanie Jones, 37, faces at least 20 years inside when she’s sentenced in February. She’s agreed to a plea deal in which she’s admitted first-degree murder in return for not being given a life sentence, and she’ll also testify against Navin’s dad, Brandon Walker, 41, reports the Daily Mail.
Walker's trial is ongoing, and he faces life in prison if he’s convicted of the same crime.
According to the prosecution, Navin's room was filthy, with just a bed and one toy, while the rest of the home in Peoria was well furnished.
Bodycam footage shows that the cops immediately doubted Jones’s story as she sat crying on the steps of the home while she was smoking a fag. When Walker was told that Navin might not make it, he punched a car bonnet and shouted: “There's no f***ing way.”
The footage also showed rope that had been used to keep the door of Navin’s bedroom shut, and the note which was apparently for the benefit of his older brother.
His legal guardian, his grandmother Laura Walker, had looked after Navin since he was a baby, but after Walker and Jones briefly had him back in 2021, they refused to return him to Laura.
She contacted the authorities with her concerns. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services initially said Laura’s allegations were “unfounded”. Later, after an inspection of the home, they found Navin to be sickly and thin but claimed he was safe with his parents. That visit was a month before he died.
Forensic pathologist Amanda Youmans, who performed the post-mortem examination, said Navin had lost the fat layer under his skin and showed signs of chronic malnutrition.
She added that as well as having muscles that had worn away, he was covered in bruises and there was evidence that he’d been restrained.
His death was caused by cardiac arrest as a result of starvation.
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- Crime
- Courts
- Murder
- United States
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