Father of malnourished baby who died after being found at New Road Inn in Waco sentenced to prison
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The father of a 3-month-old baby who died in November 2023 from neglect and malnourishment was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday.
Charles Devin Harris, 27, pleaded guilty to injury to a child, endangering a child and possession of methamphetamine charges in a plea bargain that called for him to serve 40 years on the first count and two years in a state jail facility on the second and third counts.
Judge Susan Kelly of Waco’s 54th State District Court accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Harris to the three terms, which he will serve concurrently. Harris must earn credit for serving at least 20 years in prison before he can seek parole.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors Tara Avants and Will Hix dismissed a murder count against Harris.
Harris’ wife, Skylynn Tuerk, 34, pleaded guilty in August to murder, injury to a child, endangering a child and possession of methamphetamine and also was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the death of her child. She also will serve her four terms concurrently, making her eligible for parole in 20 years.
Hix said the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office is grateful to resolve the cases “without the need for a painful trial.”
“Bringing closure to this tragic situation can hopefully set everyone affected on the path toward healing,” Hix said.
Harris’ attorney, Bryan Cantrell, said he is thankful to Avants and Hix for “sparing (Harris) the responsibility of living with a murder conviction for his own child.”
“He wasn’t there, but with those kind of facts, you better take a plea,” Cantrell said. “While he wasn’t there when the child died, so much could have been done differently. But I have never seen many clients more remorseful than Harris.”
The couple’s baby, Jacob, was found unresponsive Nov. 29, 2023, in a filthy room at the New Road Inn, 4000 Interstate 35 North Frontage Road, and was said to be “starving and looking like a skeleton.” He died later that day at a local hospital.
A doctor told police he thinks the boy “died as a result of starvation because he was very malnourished and possibly shaken baby syndrome due to injuries he observed,” according to court records filed in the case.
Child Protective Services workers received a report that Jacob weighed 7 pounds when he was born, but only weighed 10 pounds when he died. The person who reported the situation to CPS claimed Tuerk was “nonchalant” about the baby’s condition and that Harris was “playing video games the entire time” during the person’s visit to their room, reports indicate.
Police responding to the report the next day found the family living in “unclean and dangerous” conditions, an arrest affidavit alleges. The boy was described as “very thin and malnourished.” CPS workers took custody of his 3-year-old sister.
The day the boy was found dead, police found half a gram of methamphetamine and a drug scale in a backpack next to the motel room bed, documents state. They also saw cockroaches in the area where one of the children slept, and “numerous knives and swords with blades exposed within the reach of the 3-year-old girl,” police alleged.
Police detectives reported they found no “real food for the children and there was no baby formula for Jacob… and the only food found for the children were a couple of juice boxes and fruit snacks,” according to court documents.
The first-degree felony injury to a child count against the pair alleges they, by act or omission, caused serious bodily injury to Jacob by “failing to provide adequate nutrition and/or medical treatment” while shirking their duties as biological mother and father.
Count 3, the endangering count, alleges they placed their son in imminent danger of death, bodily injury or physical impairment by exposing the older girl “to knives and/or illicit drugs and/or alcohol and/or unsanitary living conditions.”
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