On the 911 call that alerted the authorities, one of the children said the girl was not breathing, there were no adults home, and they did not know the address of their house.
Policy arrived in the 3300 block of O’Neal Lane and went door-to-door attempting to locate the house when Scott and Yates arrived, at which time they informed them they had been at a casino.
The victim was initially resuscitated by paramedics and taken to a hospital, where she remained under their care for two days. She was pronounced dead on Wednesday, February 14, as a result of a brain bleed likely caused by blunt force trauma, police said. She also had bruises and abrasions lining her face.
Scott and Yates said they were gone from the house for several hours during their trip to the casino. The former also said that she was aware of her nephew’s violent tendencies toward other children, and the latter said she noticed bruises on one of her daughters during a previous time she was left alone with the boy.
Tragically, Yates “ignored her children’s pleas for help,” an arrest record said.
The adults were charged with principal to simple battery and principal to second-degree murder, and the children with one count of battery and second-degree murder. In Louisiana, the crime of second-degree murder carries the punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Both women admitted during police interviews that they regularly left the children alone during the two weeks that Yates and her children had lived with Scott.
“A case like this is devastating,” East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said in a statement. “My heart breaks for this child lost too soon, and I pray for the others involved. Please call law enforcement immediately if you are ever aware of abuse, neglect or desertion of children.”
