Parents of infant who died at Waco motel indicted on multiple felony counts, including murder

 Parents of infant who died at Waco motel indicted on multiple felony counts, including murder

Skylynn Tuerk, 33, and Charles Harris, 27

Skylynn Tuerk, 33, and Charles Harris, 27(KWTX GRAPHIC)

By Tommy Witherspoon

Published: Jan. 18, 2024 at 5:01 PM CST|Updated: 37 minutes ago

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The parents of a 3-month-old baby who died in November from neglect and malnourishment were indicted Thursday on multiple felony counts.

A McLennan County grand jury indicted Skylynn Katherine Tuerk, 33, and Charles Devin Harris, 27, each in four-count indictments charging them with murder, injury to a child, endangering a child and possession of methamphetamine.

The couple’s baby, Jacob, was found unresponsive Nov. 29 in a filthy room at the New Road Inn, 4000 Interstate 35 North Frontage Road, and was said to be “starving and looking like a skeleton.” He died later that day at a local hospital.

A doctor told police he thinks the boy “died as a result of starvation because he was very malnourished and possibly shaken baby syndrome due to injuries he observed,” according to court records filed in the case.

Child Protective Services workers received a report that Jacob weighed 7 pounds when he was born, but only weighed 10 pounds when he died. The person who reported the situation to CPS claimed Tuerk was “nonchalant” about the baby’s condition and that Harris was “playing video games the entire time” during the person’s visit to their room, reports indicate.

Police responding to the report the next day found the family living in “unclean and dangerous” conditions, an arrest affidavit alleges. The boy was described as “very thin and malnourished.” CPS workers took custody of his 3-year-old sister.

The day the boy was found dead, police found half a gram of methamphetamine and a drug scale in a backpack next to the motel room bed, documents state. They also saw cockroaches in the area where one of the children slept, and “numerous knives and swords with blades exposed within the reach of the 3-year-old girl,” police alleged.

Police detectives reported they found no “real food for the children and there was no baby formula for Jacob… and the only food found for the children were a couple of juice boxes and fruit snacks,” according to court documents.

The first-degree felony injury to a child count against the pair alleges they, by act or omission, caused serious bodily injury to Jacob by “failing to provide adequate nutrition and/or medical treatment” while shirking their duties as biological mother and father.

Count 3, the endangering count, alleges they placed their son in imminent danger of death, bodily injury or physical impairment by exposing the older girl “to knives and/or illicit drugs and/or alcohol and/or unsanitary living conditions.”