Inset: Charles Devin Harris (McLennan County District Attorney's Office). Background: The motel in Texas where Harris' infant son starved to death (Google Maps).
A 27-year-old man in Texas will spend decades locked up for fatally starving his 3-month-old son, who authorities said looked "like a skeleton" when he was found dead in a rural motel two years ago.
District Judge Susan N. Kelly on Thursday ordered Charles Devin Harris to serve 40 years in a state correctional facility for his role in the death of Jacob Jeremiah Amon Harris.
Kelly sentenced Harris after he reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to charges of injury to a child, endangering the welfare of a child, and possession of methamphetamine. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped an additional charge of murder.
Specifically, Harris will serve 40 years for the charge of injury to a child and two years for each of the remaining charges, which will run concurrently. He will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years.
Harris' sentence mirrors the sentence Kelly handed down to the victim's mother, Skylynn Tuerk, earlier this year.
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"Our office is grateful to be able to resolve the second of the two cases stemming from this child's death without the need for a painful trial," the McLennan County District Attorney's Office said in a statement to Waco ABC affiliate KXXV. "Bringing closure to this tragic situation can hopefully set everyone affected on the path toward healing."
As Law&Crime previously reported, the investigation into Harris and Tuerk began on Nov. 29, 2023, at the New Road Inn motel in the 4000 block of North Frontage Road in Waco, which is about 100 miles south of Dallas.
Police responding to a request for a welfare check on a child at the motel said they discovered Jacob — who has been widely referred to as "Baby JJ" in local media accounts — dead due to prolonged starvation. Officers at the scene said the infant appeared "starving" and "looking like a skeleton," according to court records obtained by Waco-based CBS and Telemundo affiliate KWTX.
Police rescued Baby JJ's then-3-year-old sister from the room, which they said was filthy and infested with cockroaches. There was also raw meat, knives, swords, and drugs that investigators said were easily accessible to the children.
The investigation into the family was brought on by a third party making a report about the child's welfare to Child Protective Services.
The CPS caller expressed concerns Baby JJ had not put on enough weight since his birth and described Tuerk as "nonchalant" about the issue. Meanwhile, Harris is alleged to have been "playing video games the entire time" the other person was in the room.
Arriving the next day — and by then too late — officers described the family as living in "unclean and dangerous" conditions, noting the bladed weapons were "within the reach of the 3-year-old girl."
There was no "real food for the children" inside the unsanitary room and "no baby formula for Jacob," police reportedly wrote in a probable cause affidavit. The only food or drinks that appeared to be for children were juice boxes and some packages of fruit snacks.
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