Mother of slain 2-year-old pleads guilty

Woman admits to tampering with corpse before it was found floating in Brays Bayou

The mother of a toddler girl whose body was dumped in a storm drain and later found in Brays Bayou has pleaded guilty in connection with the child’s 2020 death, according to court records.

Sahara Ervin on Wednesday pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, in this case a human corpse, following the August 2020 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Maliyah Bass. Ervin initially told police that her daughter vanished from their Alief-area apartment complex while playing, a claim that then prompted an Amber Alert to be issued.

Police suspected foul play after a jogger found the body floating along the Brays Bayou Greenway

Trail, where it drifted about 15 miles from the complex. Investigators turned to Ervin and her boyfriend, Travion Thompson, as possible suspects in the days that followed the child’s death because of several contradictions in their statements, according to court documents.

Investigators do not believe that Ervin, or Thompson, made any attempt to look for the missing toddler after her reported disappearance, according to court documents. The couple went as far to oppose the use of a tracking dog to look for the girl away from the complex.

A neighbor also told police that they never saw the girl outside when the couple said she went to a nearby playground.

Thompson was charged in October 2020 with tampering with evidence as well as serious bodily injury to a child. While jailed, he garnered another charge of assault of a public servant. Police believe he punched a detention officer last March. He remains jailed on all the charges and is expected next week to return to court.

The plea agreement that Ervin signed states that she will cooperate with prosecutors if called to testify against Thompson in future hearings or trials. If she abides by that pledge, prosecutors would recommend a 20-year prison sentence.

Ervin is scheduled to be sentenced in June, records show.

As police pulled Maliyah’s body from the bayou, Ervin and Thompson flocked to the Gulfgate neighborhood. Thompson cried

to reporters and said he felt like a father to the girl. He sobbed and was held back by a friend as a medical examiner’s vehicle carried her body away.

Police believe Maliyah was beaten and killed with a blunt object.

Thompson told police after his arrest that he beat the girl with a hair brush because she would not go to bed. She was forced to sleep in a broom closet and died at some point overnight.

Surveillance footage at the apartment complex showed Thompson later leaving their apartment with a large trash can over his shoulder. He then walked to the area of a storm drain, investigators said.

Police believe Maliyah’s body floated to the Gulfgate neighborhood through a drainage system in the bayou.