A Clarendon woman pled guilty in Childress Monday to a felony charge related to the 2011 death of her grandson, Chance Mark Jones.
Gayle Edes, age 67, will serve 90 days in the Donley County Jail, and a ten-year sentence to the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which was probated as a condition of her plea agreement. If she had been found guilty by a jury, Edes could have faced up to 99 years or life in prison.
“With this plea of guilty, Edes takes responsibility for not seeking the medical care for her helpless grandson who needed someone to get him out of one of the most unimaginable situations for anyone, much less a four year old,” said Inman. “If Edes would have taken Chance to the doctor, he might be with people that truly loved him today.”
In addition to jail time and probation, Edes will be required to pay a $10,000 fine, $385.50 in court costs, and $4,500 in restitution for Jones’ funeral expenses, and she agreed to surrender all of the boy’s personal belongings over to his family. She must also complete 400 hours of community service.
“Edes is just as culpable as to what happened to Chance in the end,” said Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn. “Robert Babcock is who beat Chance to death, and Edes didn’t take him to the hospital when she knew that’s what Chance needed the night before the last serious assaults were committed by Babcock on Chance.”
Edes conviction is the second and last conviction in the Chance Mark Jones death case.
“The injury to a child case by omission was not something that we could file immediately due to factual and legal hurdles we had to overcome,” said Inman. “It’s not as simple as going forward against the perpetrator who actually committed the assault. There had to be forensic medical testimony that would support the injury occurred as a result of not seeking medical attention, and that part of the investigation took time.”
On January 4, 2012, a Donley County Grand Jury indicted Edes for the first degree felony of Injury to a Child by Omission, and court records alleged that on January 3, 2011, the accused intentionally or knowingly, by omission, caused serious bodily injury to four-year-old Chance Mark Jones by her failure to get medical attention for the boy and that she had assumed care, custody, or control of the child at that time.
A jury trial was scheduled for Edes in Donley County for August, but was postponed to October 23 due to the medical condition of the defendant, according to court documents.
Babcock, Edes’ son, had custody of Jones for just a few weeks before, according to local authorities, he began abusing the boy on December 24, 2010, and continued abusing him until January 4, 2011. On that date, Babcock called emergency personnel to his residence near Clarendon where they found Jones unresponsive.
The boy died the next morning at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. An autopsy conducted the next day revealed that the boy died from blunt force trauma to the head and that he also suffered internal injuries from trauma to the torso. Investigators at the time called the case the worst they had ever worked.
The state held that Edes knew what was happening to the boy and did not get him medical attention.
Once her jail sentence is served, the court has permitted Edes to serve her probation in Potter or Randall County due to her need for medical care.
In June, a Hall County Jury found Babcock guilty of capital murder, and he is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. A representative with Inman’s office told the Enterprise this week that Babcock has filed an appeal with the Seventh Court of Appeals. The representative said the appeal will be “a very lengthy process.”
© 2012 Clarendon Enterprise
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.