LaPLACE, LOUISIANA: A Louisiana couple were arrested for allowing their four-month-old daughter to starve to death inside a filthy trailer. Angel Taylor and Chevy Lafountain also neglected their one-year-old son to such an extent that a local officer was baffled to see how the toddler managed to survive.
According to the sheriff's office, the trailer where the couple lived was a ghastly scene along with signs of neglect piled up in front of the home where children’s toys were scattered and mixed in with garbage and junk.
Who are Chevy Lafountain and Angel Taylor?
On August 1 Taylor, 24, and Lafountain, 31, were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, neglect, and child abuse. According to the St John Parish Sheriff’s Office, Taylor called the police because her daughter was unresponsive. Deputies found the girl lifeless after they arrived at the couple’s home.
The mother said she had her daughter down to sleep for the last hour but the authorities did not buy into her accounts after their close inspection. “How long that baby was actually deceased, I couldn’t tell you. The child had been severely malnourished, who knows the last time that baby had a meal,” Sheriff Mike Tregre said at a press conference this week, FOX8Live reported.
Taylor and Lafountain were charged with second-degree murder but they also each face a felony charge of cruelty to juveniles with force/violence and a misdemeanor charge of child desertion. An autopsy report showed that the infant suffered from malnutrition, dehydration, and starvation.
The couple's young boy was also severely neglected
Taylor and Lafountain’s 13-month-old son also lived in the home. Just like his now-dead sister, the sheriff said the boy had been severely malnourished. “Somehow, the boy found a way to eat and managed to survive,” he said.
"Wild animals take better care of their babies"
“I’ve seen wild animals take better care of their babies,” Tregre remarked after the couple was booked. Tregre said that children shared the unfortunate fate because of a deadly combination of “drug abuse, poor parenting, and neglect to the highest level". He added that neither of the parents expressed remorse and admitted to substance abuse. “Both admitted that they treated the children poorly and [Chevy Lafountain] blamed everyone but himself,” Tregre said.
The father blamed the dealers for selling him drugs, the sheriff said, and the mother blamed her neglect for not knowing that she remained unconscious for hours at a time. The couple’s son is now in the custody of child protective services. “You know, you’ve got people in this world that would love to have a baby that can’t have children. A stranger would have taken this child. Just to see a child deteriorate this way? It’s hard,” Tregre said.
