A Dallas County grand jury has indicted a mother and her boyfriend accused of beating the woman's 4-year-old daughter to death in March, The Dallas Morning News reports.
NBC 5 News/Grand Prairie Police DepartmentJeri Quezada, 30, and Charles Phifer, 34, were arrested and charged with felony injury to a child after Quezada's daughter Leiliana Wright died at a North Texas hospital.
The indictment was returned Monday; a trial date has not yet been set.
Police allege the couple used heroin and repeatedly beat and restrained the girl before she stopped breathing, after which the child was transported to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The child's paternal grandmother, Alisa Clakey, said her son was not capable of caring for the girl and that Quezada was in prison for the first two years of the girl's life.
Clakely said she noticed her granddaughter had bruising when she would pick her up from Quezada's home. On several occasions, she said Quezada would skip scheduled meetings Leiliana was supposed to have with her grandparents. Eventually, Clakely began calling Child Protective Services to report her concerns.
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"If we had done something sooner, I don't know," Clakely said. "I don't know."
During the investigation, police released an detailed affidavit that outlined the brutal final hours of the child's life.
"I've never seen such a crime of evil in my entire career," said Lyle Gensler, spokesman for the Grand Prairie Police Department. "The images were terrible, extremely explicit."
At last check, Quezada was being held on $500,000 bond while Phifer was being held on $1 million bond.
Quezada-Mug-Shot-and-Affidavit (Text)
