The trial is under way for a Tennessee mother accused of neglecting her 13-year-old son to death, more than three years after she was indicted.
Kadaris Maddox had cerebral palsy and weighed just 38 pounds when he died on July 6, 2022. An autopsy report said the boy died of malnutrition, Clarksville Now reported.
On Wednesday, the second day of Cheyenne Maddox’s trial, a home health care nurse testified that she frequently arrived at the home to find Kadaris lying in a bathtub wearing a disposable diaper, often filled with feces. His mother would invariably say she was about to wash him off, Myesha Mays said.
Mays described the mother as “absent” and “unresponsive” to her son, frequently ignoring him, blaming him for family issues, and even saying she wished he was dead. Mays testified that Kadaris was a happy child away from his home during a week she let him spend at her home.
“It was really just a normal day, like he was really at home,” Mays recalled. “Once my husband got home, he would interact more with him. Dancing with (Kadaris), singing with him. We just wanted to make him feel at home.”
When she brought him back to the Maddox home, Mays said, the boy cried.
Also on Tuesday, Kadaris’ pediatrician testified about his alarming weight loss. Dr. Gary Griffieth said that the child weighed 47 pounds at his last in-person visit in December 2020 and that his general examination was “OK.” He said the weight was low, even for a child with cerebral palsy, but “What I need is a second point, because then that tells me what the rate is.”
Griffieth never got that second point because Maddox never brought the boy back to see the doctor.
Cheyenne Maddox is standing trial for murder and aggravated child neglect. The trial continues on Thursday.
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[Featured image: Cheyenne Maddox/Clarksville Police Department and Kadaris Maddox/family handout]
