Inset: Zaikiya Duncan (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The block in Texas where Duncan allegedly abused her twin children (Google Maps).
In a rapid decision, a Texas jury found a mother guilty of severely abusing her twin children, following emotional testimony from her son about their ordeal of being handcuffed, denied food, and forced to consume bleach. It only took jurors from Harris County an hour to reach a unanimous verdict against Zaikiya Duncan, 43, on two charges of aggravated assault causing severe injury.
According to legal filings, authorities from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a property on the 20000 block of Great Pines Drive early on October 18, 2022, responding to concerns about the wellbeing of two 16-year-old twins. The dispatcher was informed by a caller that the siblings, a boy and a girl, had come to their home, claiming they had “fled from their mother’s custody.”
The probable cause affidavit revealed the twins had visible bruises and were partly undressed and barefoot, explaining they were “very hungry.”
The neighbor’s doorbell camera showed the siblings asking her, “Can you help us?” as they held up their handcuffs.
Their neighbor recounted to Amarillo’s ABC affiliate KVII, “When they entered, they assured us, ‘We mean no harm.’ She was trembling with handcuffs on. She pleaded, ‘We need assistance. We have just escaped our restraints. Our mother had confined us in the laundry room.'”
Duncan’s former partner, Jova Terrell, previously admitted to a lesser indictment of child endangerment and received an 18-month sentence in a state correctional institution.
Inset: Jova Terrell (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The neighborhood in Texas where Duncan and Terrell reportedly mistreated her twin children (Google Maps).
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located the children in a grisly state. Police said both kids’ “wrists had lacerations” that were “consistent with being restrained with handcuffs.”
The brother’s wrists had blisters that were bleeding and both of his hands were swollen. The sister had similar injuries and was wearing a “gray plastic grocery bag around her neck that she stated she used as a shirt.”
As investigators continued speaking with the victims, the hardships they described only became more harrowing.
“Both complainants stated that they were handcuffed to the same black dolly located in the laundry room of the residence,” the affidavit said. “Both complainants informed deputies that their [mother] made them drink chemicals such as bleach [and] Lysol and would spray “Easy-Off” oven cleaner in their mouths if they talked too much. The defendant would also pour bleach on the children causing their skin to burn, including their genital area. They both stated that they do not remember the last time they have taken a shower and only have access to a mop bucket containing dirty water and when they needed to use the restroom, they would have to urinate/defecate on themselves.”
The sister also said that on at least one occasion, her brother “defecated” and their mother “made them both eat it and drink [the brother’s] urine.”
The kids said their mom “ordered all of her restraining equipment from Amazon,” including the handcuffs they escaped in.
They also claimed their mother gave them a mustard or relish sandwich one to three times a week, were only able to drink from the water valve on the washing machine, and were regularly made to take Benadryl to make them fall asleep.
The kids said they were only able to escape when the brother was able to get the handcuff key from their mom’s purse and hide it in his mouth overnight. Following the kids’ escape, Duncan and Terrell fled to Louisiana with her other children, but were arrested a short while later.
The brother, who is now 18, testified against his mother on Thursday, telling jurors that he believed his mother “hated” him and his sister.
“She told us to stop calling her mom,” he said from the stand, according to a courtroom report from the Houston Chronicle.
The neighbor who let the kids in after their escape previously told KVII that she would be following the proceedings to the end to make sure the victims’ mother got what she deserved.
“Give these abusers life in prison, like murderers, because that’s ultimately what it’s going to lead to,” she reportedly told the station.
Duncan will be sentenced on Monday.
