Parents charged in child’s death
Givens, mcbride each face five felony charges
A criminal complaint was filed on Wednesday in Yuma Justice Court against the parents arrested in connection to the death of their nearly 2-year-old daughter.
Appearing by video feed from the county jail, 39-year-old James Givens and 28-year-old Jamie McBride were told by Justice of the Peace Greg Stewart during separate hearings that they both had been charged with five felony offenses.
Those offenses, he continued, were premeditated 1st-degree murder per domestic violence and four counts child abuse per domestic violence – with one charge being for each of the couple’s children.
Stewart also noted that Arizona Child Protective Services was listening to the hearing telephonically.
In addition to ordering the court to appoint attorneys to represent each of the defendants, he ordered that their bail remain as originally set in the amount of a $1 million cash-only bond.
He scheduled their next court appearances for 4 p.m. on Oct. 2 for preliminary hearings.
Their cases, however, will likely go before the
grand jury before then. If that does happen their next hearings will be in Yuma County Superior Court.
According to Yuma police, at approximately 4:44 p.m. on Sunday, officers responded to a home in the 2900 block of West 22nd Street to assist the Yuma Fire Department for a report of a child having difficulty breathing.
The child, aged one year and ten months old, was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced deceased.
An investigation into the incident by Yuma police led to both Givens and McBride being arrested.
At their hearings on Monday, prosecutor Karolyn Kaczorowski of the Yuma County Attorney’s Office informed the court that Givens and McBride were facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted. She noted that the child weighed just over 10 pounds at the time of her death.