Inset, left to right: Sampaguita L. Jones and Sherman Jones (Detroit Police Department). Background: The Detroit street where the Joneses lived with the victim before his death last year (Google Maps).
Two foster parents in Michigan are facing a slew of felonies for allegedly abusing, torturing, and ultimately killing a 9-year-old boy in their care last year, leaving the child bruised “from head to toe” and with “too many scars to count” when he died from untreated pneumonia.
Sherman Devaughn Jones, 46, and Sampaguita L. Jones, 41, were taken into custody and charged with one count each of felony murder, torture and involuntary manslaughter in the death of young Owen, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Wayne County Prosecutor”s Office, emergency medical personnel at about 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2024, responded to a residence in the 3700 block of Gladstone Street in Detroit regarding reports of an unresponsive child. Paramedics transported the child to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy conducted by the Wayne County medical examiner determined that the 9-year-old’s cause of death was pneumonia. However, a subsequent investigation into the circumstances of the boy’s death revealed a harrowing case of physical and emotional abuse, prosecutors say.
“It is alleged that the defendants neglected and physically assaulted the child, resulting in his death,” the release states.
The defendants appeared for their arraignment on Thursday, during which prosecutors provided additional details about the allegations against the foster parents, as seen in footage from Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV.
During the hearing, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Erin Wilmoth described the allegation in the case as “beyond egregious,” saying the young boy endured “unimaginable pain and suffering” at the hands of the Joneses.
“The evidence in this case supports that Owen suffered long-term severe physical abuse at the hands of both defendants, who were his caregivers at the time,” she said.
According to the prosecutor, a family member first noticed physical injuries on Owen back in June 2023 and notified CPS. Unfortunately, CPS “failed to open an appropriate investigation,” Wilmoth said.
She described the medical evidence showing that at the time of his death, Owen had “scars, scratches, discoloration, and bruising over the entire surface of his body,” Wilmoth said, “from head to toe.”
“In fact, the medical report notes that there were too many scars to count on Owen’s body,” the prosecutor continued. “He was underweight with an extremely protruding stomach. He had healing fractures as well as acute fractures, which means nonhealing, close-in-time to his death, fractures of the ribs, his pelvis, his elbow, scapula, humerus, his hands, his arms — I mean, the list goes on.
Wilmoth said that additional medical evidence would be provided to the court in the future, but went on to emphasize that there was also evidence indicating that Owen was “concealed from the world” to prevent others from finding out about the alleged abuse.
“He was often locked away in his bedroom, not allowed to go outside, not taken for normal wellness checks,” she said, adding that Owen was homeschooled, alleging that too was an effort to keep the abuse he suffered from being discovered.
According to Wilmoth, the trauma suffered by Owen made him more susceptible to infections. Despite that, both defendants allegedly ignored his “progressive symptoms for weeks.” The “extremely rare” case of a 9-year-old dying from pneumonia, Wilmoth argued, was directly due to the physical abuse and refusal to seek any treatment for Owen.
The medical examiner determined the manner of death to be a homicide “due to the duration that these progressive symptoms were ignored,” the prosecutor said. Doctors said the boy’s right lung had collapsed because his entire right chest cavity was filled with pus.
An attorney for the defendants highlighted the fact that CPS did not find Owen’s situation to be dire enough to even open an investigation into the Joneses “despite a report being made,” adding that the allegations date back two years and the defendants both work.
The judge sided with prosecutors in remanding the Joneses to pretrial detention. They are scheduled to appear in court again for a probable cause conference on July 3.
