Stunning new facts have emerged in a case of child abuse in the outskirts of Chicago, in which a 5-year-old girl was reportedly beaten to death by her grandfather due to a potty training issue.
Klent Elwoods, 62, and Lisa Jones, 57, face one charge of murder in the first degree each in regards to the death of their grandchild, Jada Moore, who passed away from multiple injuries at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago on Saturday morning.
A spokesperson for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office informed Law&Crime in an email that the child’s manner of death was classified as a homicide caused by “[m]ultiple injuries due to child abuse.” On the night of July 14, Park Forest police and paramedics answered a 911 call concerning an “unresponsive” 5-year-old girl. Elwoods supposedly admitted to the dispatcher that he had been beating his granddaughter.
The redacted Park Forest Police Department incident report acquired by Law&Crime reveals that Elwoods told officers that he had hit Jada after she had soiled herself. Furthermore, the report states that Elwoods and Jones were the only individuals in the house when the girl was injured.
In the back of a police car, Elwoods is said to have made the statement that he “was a little too rough with [his] grand baby.” Jones provided more information about the incident to the police, claiming that Elwoods had warned Jada he would punish her with a belt if she defecated on herself again. Jones then asserted that Elwoods had kept his promise and struck the girl on her buttocks 10 to 12 times, causing her to fall to the floor with each blow.
Prosecutors noted at the hearing on Monday that both Elwoods and Jones admitted to routinely beating their granddaughter with the belt, their hands, and a shoe. Jones also admitted that the two had been punishing the girl with physical abuse since she had come to live with them one month prior.
The girl had been staying with her grandparents because her mother, who lives in an Atlanta “trap house,” was having financial difficulties and needed time to search for a job. Elwoods had gone to visit Jada and her mother in March and, upon seeing their living conditions, decided to bring the girl back to Park Forest for what he hoped would be a better life.
Unfortunately, Jada’s heart stopped three times while she was in the hospital, and she died shortly afterwards.