Mother of starved, beaten girl is indicted
She faces 18 counts of harm, negligence involving 3 kids
A 31-year-old San Antonio mother arrested in February with her boyfriend on allegations that the couple beat her 9year-old with a dog leash and starved her because “she is evil” has been indicted.
The case involving Lakendra Monique Williams was among the 147 felony indictments handed up this week by a Bexar County grand jury, the District Attorney’s Office said.
In an 18-count indictment, Williams is charged with assault-intentionally/ knowingly causing serious bodily injury to three children, 14 years old or younger, by striking the children with her hands, foot and a chain she held in her hand. She also is accused of causing the children to kneel on grains of rice and handcuffing them to a bed, according to the statement.
The indictment also states Williams “had a legal duty to act and failed to do so in that Williams failed to provide food, water and shelter to her children.”
Emergency medical personnel answered a call at the Blanco Apartments in the 900 block of West Huisache Avenue on Feb. 18 regarding a child who had passed out and was unresponsive. When first responders arrived, they found the child extremely emaciated, an arrest affidavit said at the time.
First responders contacted San Antonio police to investigate whether the child was a victim of neglect. Doctors examining
the girl, 9, found signs of physical abuse, the affidavit stated.
She weighed 35 pounds — the average weight of a 4-year-old — and could barely answer questions because she lacked energy. She also was on the verge of hypothermia because of her weight, the affidavit stated. Doctors told authorities the girl was “lucky” to have survived starvation.
When interviewed later, the child told police that on the day medics responded to her house, her mother and Walter Kenneth Hawthorne, 35, repeatedly hit her with a dog leash until she passed out, the affidavit stated.
She also said the couple had restrained her ankles with handcuffs in the past and starved her because Williams “thinks she steals and (Williams) doesn’t like her,” the affidavit stated.
Upon questioning, Monique Williams told police her daughter had stopped eating and drinking for two weeks for some unknown reason, but Williams never called a doctor, the affidavit states.
Hawthorne told police they often only fed the children rice and vegetables, adding that the child was starving herself on purpose because she is “evil and just trying to get her mother in trouble,” the affidavit stated.
Williams and Haw
thorne were arrested and each have been held in lieu of $100,000 bail, court records indicate.
Hawthorne was indicted in May on the same charges in the case, but in August was declared incompetent to stand trial. His case is pending.
If convicted, Williams faces up to life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.