"Infant John" McCLURE - 2 yo (2010) - Charleston WV

CHARLESTON, W.Va.--Police said photos found of a duct-taped toddler
prompted an investigation that led to the arrest of three people on
child neglect and abuse charges.
Charleston police have arrested three people since executing a search
warrant Sunday on an Indiana Avenue apartment on the West Side.
Officers said they received a tip from the public about a child in
danger in the home, and upon investigation found the apartment to be in
deplorable condition.
Jessica Nicole McClure, 23, was arrested Sunday after police found her
apartment to be unfit for habitation and were told that she left her
2-year-old boy to sleep in his car seat in the living room. She has
been charged with child neglect creating a risk of injury.
James Ryan Usher, 18, and Della Kay Jackson, 26, were arrested Monday
after police said they found evidence linking them to alleged child
neglect. Both were charged with child abuse resulting in injury.
Police said Usher is McClure's cousin and Jackson is the woman's roommate.Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster said Tuesday that an unidentified
person contacted police after seeing photos on a computer in the home
showing the boy wrapped in duct tape.
Webster said the images, captured on a cell phone camera several months
ago, showed the child with duct tape on his face, torso, arms, wrists
and legs.
"It's just a real shocking and disappointing thing to happen to anybody, let alone a child," Webster said Tuesday.
Jackson and Usher had been watching the boy for his mother, McClure,
while she was out when the photographed incident occurred about three
months ago, detectives said.
An image shows the child's ankles taped together, his arms and wrists
taped to his torso and tape over his mouth, according to a complaint
filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.
Detectives wrote in the complaint that Usher wrapped the child in tape and then Jackson took photographs.
Webster said the detectives went to the home Sunday to investigate and found it to be uninhabitable.
"The home was just deplorable," Webster said. "There was animal fecal
matter everywhere and one of the detectives said there were cats coming
out of the ceiling tiles in the apartment."
Detective A.T. Kuhner wrote in the complaint that the apartment was
heated completely by electric space heaters in the living room and that
the trash and debris strewn around the apartment was close enough to
the space heaters to be a fire hazard. Officers found three dogs and
several cats inside the home, the complaint said.
Detectives said the floor and the child's bed were covered in animal
feces and that there was rotten and spoiled food in the kitchen as well
as in bags scattered around the apartment. The apartment also was
completely infested with roaches, they said.
McClure told officers she had forced the boy to sleep strapped into his
car seat all night because there wasn't enough room on the mattresses
or couches in the home occupied by her and her adult visitors, the
complaint said.
Detective Autumn Davis said the house was filthy and lacked sufficient heat.
"It was definitely not a good living environment for the child," Davis said.
She said Tuesday she was unsure if more charges would be filed in the case but that the investigation is ongoing.
McClure, Jackson and Usher are being held at South Central Regional Jail. Bond was set at $100,000 for each.
The child was removed from the home by Child Protective Services and placed in the custody of a relative, police said.

A disturbing case of child abuse in Charleston continues to move forward.
Jessica McClure pleaded guilty today to a child endangerment charge.
McClure was arrested back in January after she forced her two year old son to
sleep in a child's safety seat.
Police say her apartment on Indiana Avenue was also filled with garbage, animal feces and infested
with roaches.
Two other people were arrested and charged with duct taping the little boy's hands, ankles and mouth shut.
Della Jackson pleaded guilty to the charges last week.
James Usher is still awaiting trial in the case.
Both Jackson and McClure have agreed to testify against Usher.
McClure is facing one to five years in prison when she is sentenced on June 24.

A Charleston man told police he was joking around and "probably was
high" on marijuana when he bound a 2-year-old child's wrists, ankles and
mouth with duct tape in 2009.
Charleston Police Detective D.S. Paxton interviewed James Ryan Usher,
19, in January 2010 after photos surfaced of the child effectively
hogtied, with his hands bound to his sides, his ankles tied together and
a strip of the silver tape across his mouth.
A Kanawha County jury saw a video recording of the interrogation Tuesday
during the first day of Usher's trial on felony child abuse and child
neglect charges.
Usher said he and Della Jackson, the girlfriend of the child's mother,
were joking around, taping each other in the West Side apartment where
they all were staying in fall 2009. They were watching the child while
his mother, Jessica McClure, was at work.
"And we just got bored with it and then there was extra left up because
it was kind of clumped up," Usher said. "I was messing with the baby,
tied it around his feet a little bit. Then tied it around his hands and
he was playing with it."
After a few minutes, Paxton showed Usher the pictures of the bound
child.
"You think that this is playing, you think this is having fun, this is
playing? Duct-taping a child?" Paxton asked.
"I mean, in a [messed] up sense of way, it is. But it's not," Usher
answered.
Later, Paxton asked Usher why he couldn't remember the photos being
taken, taping the child's mouth, whether he screamed and who was in the
apartment at the time.
"I don't know; I probably was high," Usher replied.
The jury also heard testimony from McClure and Jackson, who were
indicted alongside Usher in January. Since then, McClure pleaded guilty
to one count of child neglect, admitting that she sometimes left her son
strapped into a car seat overnight, and Jackson pleaded guilty to one
count of child abuse for her role in the duct-taping incident.
As part of their plea deals, both McClure and Jackson agreed to testify
against Usher. The state agreed to stand silent when McClure is
sentenced in June, and agreed not to object to an alternative sentence,
such as probation or home confinement, if Jackson receives a favorable
pre-sentence report from the adult probation department.
Both women admitted that they abused prescription pain pills, such as
Lortab, Vicodin and Percocet.McClure said she was angry when she uploaded digital photographs from
her camera onto her computer, and saw images of her son bound and
gagged. She confronted Usher over the photos, she said.
"I was freaked out," she said. "He said he was just goofing around, that
he was high and he thought it was funny."
McClure said she told Jackson never to leave Usher alone with her son
again.
She did not report the incident to police, she said.
"At the time, I was told it was only a couple minutes," she said.
Jackson said that on the day of the duct-taping, she and a friend went
into another room to check on the five dogs that also lived in the
apartment and left Usher alone with the child.
When she came back, Usher had bound the child, she said.
The jury also saw pictures of the squalid apartment, which was strewn
with garbage and dirty clothes. The photos, which were taken in January
2010 when police arrested Usher, McClure and Jackson, also showed dog
feces and cockroaches in the filthy apartment.
Dr. Joan Phillips, a pediatrician and co-director of the Child Advocacy
Center at CAMC Women and Children's hospital, told the jury that with
his mouth blocked, the child easily could have choked or asphyxiated.
Or, if the child had gagged or vomited, the fluid could have gone into
his lungs, and he could have aspirated in less than two minutes, she
said.
"I don't think you need an expert to tell you that duct-taping a child
is not in their best interests," she told the jury.
Kanawha County assistant prosecutors Erica Lord and Fred Giggenbach
maintain that Usher abused and neglected the child, while defense
attorneys Mike Clifford and Richelle Garlow contend that Usher was not
the adult in charge of supervising the child.
The trial continues Wednesday before Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles E.
King.

Wednesday September 15, 2010
Sentencing of teen in duct tape case delayed
Defense attorneys claim prosecutors influenced jury
by Cheryl Caswell


CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The sentencing of a teenager found guilty of child abuse for duct-taping a baby has been delayed until a circuit judge can decide if he should set aside the jury's verdict and grant him a new trial. James Usher, 19, was found guilty in May. His attorneys filed a motion to have his case retried, and Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King has not ruled in the matter yet. Two others charged in that incident, Della Jackson, 26, and the child's mother, Jessica McClure, 24, were sentenced Tuesday to one year on probation and two years additional supervision. Richelle Garlow, who along with Mike Clifford defended Usher, told King that prosecutors influenced the jury when they told them that Jackson and McClure "pleaded guilty and took responsibility for their actions." Garlow said, "That violated his constitutional rights. They implied that the fact that he decided to go to trial should be held against him."She said defense attorneys also objected to the limits placed on their questioning of Dr. Joan Phillips during the trial, and to showing the jury photographs of the apartment the women shared. King gave prosecutors a week to respond to that motion in writing before he makes a decision. Meanwhile, he revoked Usher's bond and had him taken into custody because he has had positive drug tests. A hearing to review his bond will be held Thursday. Usher and Jackson were charged with child abuse, while McClure was charged with child neglect after police went through her home and described the conditions as "a pigsty." She was not at home when the 2 1/2 year-old child was duct-taped - something the babysitters said was done playfully.
http://www.dailymail.com/News/201009141177

UPDATE 2/10/11 @ 11 a.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A
Charleston teenager convicted of duct-taping a 2-year-old boy has been
sentenced to a facility for youthful offenders.

The Associated Press reports that a Kanawha County
judge sentenced 19-year-old James Usher to the Anthony Correctional
Center this week. The program at Anthony can be completed in six months
to two years.

Usher was convicted in May 2010 of felony child abuse.

In March 2010, another defendant, Della Kay Jackson, pleaded guilty to felony child abuse and the boy's
mother, Jessica McClure, pleaded guilty to a child neglect charge. Both
received probation.

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/NEW_INFO_Man_Found_Guilty_in_Disturbing_Child_Abuse_Case.html?ref=447