A police report describes drug use, “deplorable conditions,” and a delay in calling emergency services at the home of two women facing felony neglect charges in the death of a 3-year-old girl.
Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report on an unresponsive 3-year-old on August 8th at a home on the 4100 block of N. Thomas Rd.
The girl’s mother, Keera Braun, and her grandmother, Millissa Hicks, are charged with neglect.
An ambulance took the girl to IU Health in Bloomington before she was transported to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis. She died there five days later because of a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen.
Braun and Hicks appeared for an initial hearing Monday for felony counts of child neglect that resulted in death.
Braun told police she was concerned about her daughter on the evening of August 7 to the early hours of August 8th because her breathing “was off.”
According to an affidavit Braun told Detective Jeffrey Ripley that she had used cannabis on August 7th but denied other drug use. She told Ripley she gave her daughter melatonin that evening to help her sleep and that she had stayed next to her daughter all night.
The girl’s 11-year-old brother told officers that his sister had a medical emergency that night, between midnight and 1 a.m. on August 8. He’d been playing videogames in another room and heard a loud noise from a bedroom where his sister was. When he went to check, his sister was unresponsive on the floor and his uncle was on a bed in the room. He said his mother and grandmother moved his sister to the bathroom and started CPR. His sister started breathing again and his mom put her to bed.
The brother told officers that his mom, uncle, and grandmother went to bed. And his mother, Braun, told him to check on his sister every ten minutes. When he went to school that morning, his sister was still in bed.
Neither Braun nor Hicks had mentioned the medical emergency in their initial conversations with police. But they confirmed the 11-year-old’s account in later conversations. Ripley said all three adults in the home admitted to using spice on August 7th.
Read more: Bloomington women arrested after 3-year-old dies
Police said a search of the house found “animal feces” on the floor, along with “excessive trash, spoiled food, and insect infestation.”
Loose and packaged tablets and medication were “readily accessible to children” in the house. Police said, “the house was in such a deteriorated state that no child should have to reside in such conditions.”
The three-year old’s mother and grandmother, Braun and Hicks, are both being held at the Monroe County Jail. Braun faces one level 1 felony, and two level six felony counts for neglect of a dependent.
Hicks faces a level 1 and level 6 felony count for neglect of a dependent.
