FAIRMONT, W.Va. – A Marion County grand jury has indicted to Fairmont residents in the abuse-related death of a four-year-old boy earlier this year.
The grand jury indicted the mother, Ashlee Starlene Allen, 27, and her boyfriend Walter Everett Richardson, 34, in the incident that began at Ruby Memorial Hospital in January. Nurses noted injuries consistent with child abuse and summoned CPS workers.
In the January incident CPS workers, Breeana Bizub, 25, and Tabetha Phillips-Friend, 44, were called to the hospital and prepared a temporary protective order. During that meeting the boy told workers he was afraid of Richardson and that he had tried to hurt him.
An additional portion of the order barring Richardson from being in Allen’s home was not monitored by the CPS workers.
On March 4, the boy was found unresponsive in the Fairmont home and was transported to Ruby Memorial Hospital.
When the toddler was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital he was placed on life support and doctors identified more than 50 injuries to his body, including missing teeth, bruises on his arms, and a shoe print-shaped bruise on his right shoulder. By March 8, the toddler’s brain function had ceased and he was declared dead.
Bizub and Phillips-Friend were terminated and charged with involuntary manslaughter and failure to report child abuse to law enforcement.
Allen has been indicted for death of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian. Richardson has been indicted for death of a child by a parent and first degree murder.