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 Texan is facing a lengthy prison term after being convicted of starving his infant son to death. Authorities described the 3-month-old, found lifeless in a secluded motel, as resembling a “skeleton” at the time of discovery two years ago.
On Thursday, District Judge Susan N. Kelly sentenced Charles Devin Harris to 40 years in a state prison for his involvement in the tragic death of Jacob Jeremiah Amon Harris.
Harris accepted a plea agreement with the prosecution, admitting guilt to charges including injury to a child, child endangerment, and methamphetamine possession. In return for his plea, the prosecution agreed to drop a murder charge.
Under the terms of the plea, Harris will serve 40 years for injuring a child, with concurrent two-year sentences for the other charges. He may be considered for parole after serving at least 20 years of his sentence.
Judge Kelly’s ruling is consistent with the sentence she previously imposed on the child’s mother, Skylynn Tuerk, earlier this year.
In a statement shared with Waco’s ABC affiliate KXXV, the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office expressed relief at resolving the case without a distressing trial. “We hope this resolution offers closure to those impacted and aids in the healing process,” they commented. Read more here.
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.
