Edes facing felony charge in Jones case

A Clarendon woman is out on bond this week, facing a felony charge related to the death of her grandson, Chance Jones, last year.

Gayle Edes, age 67, was indicted by the Donley County Grand Jury last Wednesday, January 4, 2012, on the first degree felony charge of Injury to a Child by Omission, District Attorney Luke Inman said. She was arrested by Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn that evening, and arraigned by Justice of the Peace Connie Havens, who set bond at $50,000.

The arrest came exactly one year after local authorities were called to the rural Donley County residence of Edes’ son, Robert Babcock, where they found four-year-old Jones unresponsive and obviously beaten.

Jones died the next morning at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, and authorities believe his death could have been prevented if Edes had reported what was going on or taken action.

“She knew for two weeks and helped hide the fact that the boy was being abused,” Sheriff Blackburn said. “She made a conscious decision not get him medical care.”

Blackburn said he would have charged Edes much earlier in the investigation but said he held off because the district attorney wanted more information. He said the DA finally got enough information to present the case against Edes to the Grand Jury last week.

“I’ve wanted to arrest her since about January 14,” Blackburn said.

Court records allege that on January 3, 2011, Edes intentionally or knowingly, by omission, caused serious bodily injury to Chance Mark Jones by her failure to get medical attention for the boy and that she had care, custody, or control of the child at that time.

“She was helping take care of him, which puts a greater burden on her to protect the child,” Blackburn said.

Edes was taken to the Collingsworth County Jail for holding following her arrest and posted bond the next day. If convicted, Edes could face a sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Babcock remains in the Donley County Jail facing a capital murder charge in Jones’ death with a bond set at $1 million. According to previous reports, Babcock had only recently met his son and only had custody of him for a few weeks before, according to investigators, he began abusing the boy on December 24, 2010, and continued abusing him until January 4, 2011.

An autopsy conducted January 6, 2011, 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 worse they had ever worked.

District Attorney Inman would not comment last week on the charges facing Gayle Edes, saying that his office is focused right now on the charges against Babcock, whose trial has been moved to Hall County.