Stepfather Arrested And Charged With Attempted Murder, Child Abuse After 6-Month-Old Baby Girl Found In Trash
Police in Lawrence, Kansas have brought into custody a 27-year-old man in connection with a 6-month-old baby girl that was found seriously injured and abandoned in a trash receptacle earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Lawrence police advised that the suspect who had been wanted in connection with the discovery of the infant is finally in custody and will be facing attempted murder and child abuse charges. The man who allegedly abandoned the baby in the trash is actually the 6-month-old’s stepfather. Marquis Jamall Young, of Lawrence, is currently in the custody of Lawrence police in Johnson County, and according to a news release, is being held on unrelated counts of misdemeanor domestic battery after being arrested on Sunday.
Lawrence police: Stepfather of infant found in trash receptacle to face attmpt murder charge https://t.co/c8oQamWSTZ pic.twitter.com/fvTNM34UQl
— CJOnline (@CJOnline) July 26, 2016
While Young is now held in lieu of a $20,000 bond, a report from CBS affiliate, KWCH 12, advised that the stepfather will soon be brought from his current holdings to Douglas County in order to face charges related to his involvement in the abandonment of his step-daughter. Young will be charged with attempted first degree murder and child abuse.
The abandoned infant was discovered on July 7, when a woman who had gone to empty her vacuum cleaner into the outdoor trash compactor at the Trail Ridge Apartment Complex thought she heard a kitten crying. The woman says she dug through about five or six trash bags before the baby girl was discovered, screaming in agony. The woman’s cries for help were heard by a neighbor who then called the police to the apartment complex in the 2500 block of W. 6th in Lawrence, Kansas. The call to the police occurred at about 2:28 a.m.
The baby girl was rushed to a local hospital by an ambulance in what they reported was serious but stable condition. The 6-month-old was suffering from numerous bug bites and also had several gashes on her head; her injuries were life-threatening. The infant was treated at a Kansas City-area hospital and has been released into the care of the state. The baby girl continues to require treatment for her injuries, though the Lawrence Journal-World reported that her care is now being administered on an outpatient basis.
The press release from Lawrence Police Department Sgt. Amy Rhoads revealed that Young, the baby girl’s stepfather, was identified as a suspect following several interviews and leads followed up on by detectives from the department. About an hour and a half before the discovery of the infant in the trash, persons in the apartment complex had called police to report that a man sitting in a parked SUV in another part of the complex and was acting erratically. He seemed to have gone to the trash receptacle before leaving his SUV across from the complex.
That same man was later found to live in the same complex that police later cordoned off after the identity of the abandoned baby girl was discovered. At the time, Marquis Young’s wife, Sheena, told neighbors that she and her husband had been in a fight and she had left the house, returning about 5:30 a.m. only to find that her 6-month-old daughter was missing.
Later, when the Lawrence Police investigators identified the child’s step-father, Marquis Jamall Young, as the suspect, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for him to be arrested. However, both Sheena Young and her husband had been arrested on July 13 for suspicion of disorderly conduct because of an argument. Jefferson County Sheriff Jeffrey Herrig said that both husband and wife were released after posting a bond of $3,000 each. However, according to a criminal complaint filed in Johnson County District Court Marquis Young was arrested again soon after on accusations of battering his wife.
Marquis Young is set to appear in the Johnson County District Court to face the domestic battery charge at 11:30 a.m. on August 10. It is not yet known when the girl’s stepfather will be transferred to face the attempted murder and child abuse charges.
[Image via the Johnson County Jail]
