Background: Kadaris Maddox can be seen in a framed photo during a memorial held for him (WKRN/YouTube). Inset: Cheyenne Maddox (Clarksville Police Department).
A mother from Tennessee has been sentenced for the harrowing neglect of her 13-year-old son, who was found in a severely malnourished state.
Cheyenne Maddox received a 20-year prison sentence on Wednesday, without the possibility of parole, as reported by Nashville’s ABC affiliate WKRN. Her conviction in October 2025 included charges of reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse in relation to the death of her son, Kadaris Maddox, according to court records accessed by Law&Crime.
Emergency services arrived at Maddox’s residence on Virginia Terrace in Clarksville on July 6, 2022, and were met with a distressing scene. The house was in a state of chaos, with so much debris that officers struggled to find clear footing, as reported by Clarksville Now. Kadaris’ room was sparsely furnished, containing only a mattress, pillow, comforter, drying rack, and some electronic devices. A detective noted the presence of a “weathered” wheelchair in the yard.
The Clarksville Police Department confirmed Kadaris was deceased when they announced the arrest of the then 32-year-old mother the following month.
Prosecutors revealed that Kadaris weighed 47 pounds at his last medical appointment, but his weight had plummeted to just 35 pounds by the time of his death. Officer Joshua Clegg from the Clarksville police recounted being the first to arrive at the scene, where he was guided into the home by several children and found Maddox holding a child wrapped in a purple comforter.
Clegg described Kadaris as “just skin and bones” during his testimony, as reported by Clarksville Now. “He didn’t have a pulse,” Clegg said, noting that when he checked the boy’s ribs, he felt cold to the touch.
Kadaris was born with cerebral palsy, per WKRN, but one of his doctors stated that he was cognitively intact and optimistic about his future.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Cheyenne Maddox was initially charged with five counts of aggravated child neglect because of the living conditions of the other kids. She was later charged with killing Kadaris.
“He died of malnutrition and he died of starvation,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Mary O’Connor said in court, according to the Nashville station. “It was almost [as] if his skin was wrapped around his bones.”
A memorial was held for Kadaris in November 2022. Dawn Maddox, Cheyenne’s mother and Kadaris’ grandmother, told Clarksville Now that “there was a lot of people that loved him because he brought so much joy into the world,” per WKRN. “Just to look at him, when he smiled, his eyes, he just lit up a room. An angel was taken the day he passed away.”
Before she was sentenced, Cheyenne Maddox reportedly told the court that “I know now and wish I could go back and change so many things and trade places so that he was here with his siblings, and it was me.” She added: “It’s my negligence that led to everything, and I hold myself accountable for that.”
