JOEL NOAH ROBERTS - 6 Months (2011) - Fayetteville NC

Two Fayetteville parents were charged Friday with starving their 6-month-old child to death and failing to care for his severely emaciated twin brother, according to court records.

Terrance Lamar Roberts, 26, and Jessica Naomi Lewis, 27, both of the 2900 block of Gravely Place, are charged with two counts each of intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. The charges allege that Roberts and Lewis caused the death of one son and severely injured another through "substantial nutritional and medical neglect resulting in failure to thrive."

Court records identify the pair as the parents of the twin boys who were born Jan. 19, 2011, identified only as J.N.R. and J.R. An obituary identifies the child who died as Joel Noah Roberts.

An affidavit filed in court by Donald Williams, of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, says Joel was found unresponsive July 21, 2011 and was later pronounced dead at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

Joel's brother, J.R., was removed from the home the same day and placed into protective custody with the Cumberland County Department of Social Services, the affidavit says.

"At the time J.R. was removed from the home, he appeared to be significantly underweight and lethargic," Williams wrote.

A subsequent investigation into Joel's death revealed the child weighed 5 pounds, 13ounces at birth and weighed only 8 pounds, 6 ounces at death, according to the affidavit. That is the same weight measured during a doctor's visit April 19, 2011, meaning the child gained no weight in the last three months of his life, Williams wrote.

An examination by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Joel was in less than the third percentile for weight, length and head circumference, he said.

An exam of J.R. found he also was in less than the third percentile for weight, length and head circumference, he said.

"J.R.'s medical diagnosis was failure to thrive as a result of nutritional neglect," Williams wrote. "The medical examination indicates there was no underlying medical cause for the failure to thrive. ... Since being removed from the home, minor victim J.R. has made significant improvement in regards to weight and general state of health."

Both parents were being held at the Cumberland County jail with bail set at $230,000 each.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/01/21/1151988?sac=Home

What the h@ll is wrong with parents that they don't feed their newborn babies? Why don't they just give them up instead of torturing and killing them. This is so senseless. The surviving baby may eventually become healthy physically but he will probably be scarred for life emotionally from the nutritional abuse. So sad.