A West Texas judge says a 4-year-old boy will remain in state care for now after his father was accused of abandoning him along a rural West Texas highway in the middle of the night.
Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner tells The Associated Press that the boy's biological mother and an uncle each sought custody at a Nolan County court hearing Thursday. She says the case will return to court in Sweetwater within 30 days and CPS will make a recommendation.
He's in Nolan County jail under $500,000 bond.
Rico told Saginaw investigators that God told him to choke the boy and expel him from the car, Sweetwater Police Chief Kelley said on June 30. There was bruising on the boy's throat, he said.
The boy was picked up about three hours later by the local high school basketball coach and taken to a hospital, where doctors removed at least 500 cactus spines from the child's body.
The boy was placed in foster care after leaving the hospital.
