An Arizona grandmother and her husband are facing murder charges after paramedics, responding to the motel where the couple was staying after a call for help, found a 02 years with “important injuries”, even though he was not breathing.
The child, biological grandson of Stephanie Marie Davis, aged 51 years old , was pronounced dead at a hospital, Scottsdale police said in a news release obtained by PEOPLE.
A second child found in the care of Davis and her husband, Thomas James Desharnais, of 33 years old, was turned over to the Department of Children’s Services, police said.
“Those kids were always taken care of,” Davis said Tuesday during a Maricopa County court hearing conducted by video, adding that any evidence to the contrary was “literally just circumstantial,” reported AZFamily.com.
Court documents obtained by the outlet mention that Davis told investigators that he found the girl from 11 years old, whose name was not identified, in the bathtub and was performing CPR when officers arrived. Davis alleged that the year-old boy “had been ‘hurting’ all day” and had a history of self-harm.
AZFamily.com reported that Davis claimed the boy had hit himself in the head with a wrench while the family was watching a movie and then he went to the bathroom and cut his genitals with a kitchen knife. She said she took the wrench from him and hid it under a mattress so he couldn’t get it, and took the bloody knife into the kitchen and washed it.
The police say that neither she nor her husband did anything to get the child treatment doctor at the time, according to AZFamily.com.
According to documents cited by AZFamily.com, Davis has had custody of the children since 2015 and the alleged abuse continued.
How did the events unfold
Desharnais, the husband of the child’s grandmother, allegedly told investigators that Davis had pinched and bent the children’s fingers with pliers and had hit on the head with a wooden broom, but that he chose not to intercede, according to court documents.
Those documents allege that police found pliers and a broom handle in the motel room , as well as a kitchen knife and wrench stained with what appeared to be blood residue under a mattress.
Officers first responded to the medical call that the child was not breathing and was not responding at Extended Stay America around 4: 14 pm on Sunday, as reported by KTAR radio.
Davis and Desharnais were arrested and booked for charge two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse. Davis is being held on $3.5 million cash bail, police said. Desharnais, meanwhile, is being held on $1.5 million cash bail.
Courtney Lage, a former motel employee, said she had called the Department of Children’s Services twice to report concerns about the welfare of children in adult care.
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