Inmate: I gave police tip on Maleah’s body
Felon says he gleaned info from suspect five days before Quanell X says he got location
A Harris County Jail inmate says he supplied Houston police investigators with the Arkansas location where Derion Vence had allegedly dumped the trash bag containing little Maleah Davis’ remains five days before she was found.
The inmate, David Chalfant, who is being held while awaiting transfer to a Texas prison, told the Houston Chronicle he met with investigators on May 26 to share information he gleaned from Vence that narrowed the search for the 4-year-old’s body to a rural highway near Hope. But authorities didn’t start their search in the neighboring state until May 31 when Houston activist Quanell X told authorities that Vence had given him the same location.
By then, an Arkansas Department of Transportation contractor near Interstate 30 — who had already seen the discarded bag and ignored it — hit the bag with a lawn mower, scattering the remains along a grassy embankment about 13 miles west of Hope and more than 300 miles northeast of Maleah’s hometown of Houston.
“They waited too long,” said Chalfant, who was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. “I believe if they had acted Sunday or Monday, that wouldn’t have happened.”
HPD Executive Assistant Chief Troy Finner said during a news conference later on May 31 that their investigators had not been to Arkansas until that day. He also declined to elaborate on what led investigators to find Maleah’s body.
Police spokesman Kese Smith declined Wednesday to comment on the tip because of the ongoing investigation.
Based on the evidence Vence’s lawyer, Dorian Cotlar, said he has reviewed, he has no reason to dispute Chalfant’s account. And Quanell X likely learned nothing from Vence that police didn’t already know, he said.
“It’s my understanding from my involvement with this case that Mr. Chalfant met with homicide detectives on the 26th of May and again on the 30th of May,” Cotlar said. “It appears that law enforcement already had the lo
cation of the body — before Quanell went in there — and didn’t act on it.”
‘Hope exit’
Vence, who was reportedly engaged to marry Maleah’s mother, Brittany Bowens, was tasked with caring for the child as Bowens attended her father’s funeral in Massachusetts. Maleah was reported missing May 4 in what Vence first said was an abduction. Police have since disputed his tale and he has been charged with tampering with a corpse in connection with the child’s disappearance.
He could face a murder charge as police continue to investigate Maleah’s death and is being held in protective custody at the Harris County Jail, a few cells down from 50-year-old Chalfant.
Vence wandered over to Chalfant’s door as early as May 22 to score some extra chow, the inmate said Tuesday. Chalfant handed him crackers and soup — and eventually, Vence shared his side of what happened to the little girl whose disappearance captivated the city and nation and drew hundreds of pink-wearing mourners to City Hall to pay their respects.
“He says, ‘Man, I didn’t kill her,’” said Chalfant, who was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Vence initially told him that Maleah “died in her sleep, that she had the flu.”
Chalfant said he was among the few inmates on the sixth floor who were not hounding Vence with threats.
“He won’t talk to anyone else. Most of the guys are screaming at him, calling him a baby killer,” said Chalfant, who has been in and out of custody for more than two decades .
To Chalfant, Vence looks nothing like the men he’s seen behind bars.
“I’ve seen con games,” Chalfant said. “He doesn’t look like a murderer. He looks frail.”
In the days that followed the first meeting, Chalfant persuaded Vence to tell him where he allegedly stashed the garbage bag containing Maleah’s remains.
“He wrote, ‘Arkansas, feeder road, black trash bag, Hope exit,’” Chalfant said.
That Sunday, May 26, Chalfant said he twice met with investigators. The first time was to flag their attention to Arkansas and the second meeting was to pinpoint where the remains could be found. He met with investigators again on May 30 and was asked to don a wire and talk to Vence in the morning. He agreed but never heard back from the authorities.
The next day, Quanell X announced that he had garnered a confession and supplied it to law enforcement. Police later announced that a child’s remains had been found in Arkansas.
‘They didn’t see it’
Chalfant said he believes his tip preluded whatever information Quanell X supplied to authorities after meeting with Vence the morning of May 31.
The community leader said that Vence “confessed to me where he dumped her body” during the meeting and that he said Maleah’s death was accidental. The meeting with Quanell X wrapped up around 9:30 a.m., Dorian Cotlar, Vence’s lawyer, said.
About an hour later, Hempstead County Sheriff James Singleton in Arkansas said Houston police notified him that Maleah’s remains could be in his jurisdiction, near Exit 30 of Interstate 30, which leads directly into Hope. A massive search at the exit turned up nothing but Singleton sent a deputy to another exit near Fulton.
“Once you cross the Red River Bridge, you can cross Exit 18 and go on to Hope,” Singleton said. “I sent a deputy to Exit 18 and he found it.”
By the time authorities reached the junction, the work crew was gone, but their lawn mower had done its damage to the bag.
“The grass was so high and they didn’t see it,” Singleton said.
Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller said after the discovery that he was unsure if a cause and manner of death could ever be determined because of the condition of Maleah’s body. The cause of death is still pending, according to the Harris County medical examiners.
The work crew saw the bloodied bag two days earlier, but they left it alone under the assumption that its foul odor was from a discarded animal, Singleton said.
Chalfant said coming forward was the right thing for him to do and that he wanted no part of any reward.
“I’m a criminal and I’ve done some things, but that’s a 4-yearold baby,” Chalfant said.
A private funeral is scheduled for Maleah on June 22, according to her obituary, which is slated to be in the Chronicle on Sunday.
“With her huge smile, loving spirit and infectious personality, Maleah would instantly capture the hearts of those who knew her,” the tribute reads.