John Jefferson
From left: James Lamb, Aireal Cole and Derrick Barnby (Adair County Jail).
Three people in Missouri are spending Christmas behind bars after authorities allegedly found a 4-year-old girl under their care unconscious and severely malnourished.
James Calhoun Lamb, 29, Derrick Eugene Barnby, 25, and Aireal Cole, 23, each face child abuse or neglect charges.
Police in Kirksville, a town of under 20,000 in north-central Missouri, began investigating Dec. 11, when the girl had to be rushed to the hospital and then airlifted to a St. Louis hospital some 200 miles away, a probable cause arrest affidavit said.
The three suspects live together in the same home.
Doctors noted the girl suffered from multiple bruises, brain bleeding and an “altered mental status.” She also showed signs of neglect as medical professionals determined she was “significantly underweight” and had several cavities in her teeth, the affidavit said. Lamb allegedly blamed the injuries on a fall down the stairs a few days prior, but that explanation did not add up to doctors who authored a report on the girl.
“The report went on to say stair falls do not usually cause major head trauma and it would be unusual for the brain injury to take over a week to develop,” cops wrote. “Stair falls do not usually cause extensive bruising like she had and the torso bruising is concerning for abuse.”
Lamb reportedly claimed that after the girl suffered the fall, he called his mother who is a “medical professional” who told him to treat the girl’s pain with Tylenol and Motrin. In another interview post Miranda, Lamb said he “had anger issues but he was angry at himself for being a failure and he never took his anger out on anybody else,” according to the affidavit.
Lamb could provide no other explanation for the girl’s injuries beyond her falling down the stairs. He is a risk to the child, cops concluded.
“She has suffered a multitude of severe and life-threatening issues while under his care,” the affidavit said. “Furthermore, she suffers from severe malnutrition and severely decayed teeth which is from being neglected and not properly cared for.”
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Authorities also removed a 1-year-old child from the home who had “severe diaper rash that was consistent with neglect,” according to the court document. Barnby and Cole also were responsible for the both kids’ care and failed in that regard, authorities claimed.
All three defendants are being detained at the Adair County Jail without bond. They have a court date scheduled for Friday.
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