By TERRI LANGFORD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Sept. 10, 2009, 10:31PM
A convicted felon suspected of inflicting the injuries that led to a 4-year-old Spring girl's death is now eligible to be released on bail.
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| Lucas Ruric Coe |
Lucas Coe, 27, has been in the Harris County Jail without bail since his Aug. 10 arrest on charges accusing him of causing the injuries leading to the June 27 death of Emma Thompson. The girl died of blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
Both Coe and the girl's 33-year-old mother, Abigail Young, were charged with one count each of injury to a child.
A week ago, Coe's attorney, Bert Steinmann, asked state District Judge Mary Lou Keel to set a bail. On Thursday the judge set the bail at $100,000 with the stipulation that he have no contact with any children.
As of late Thursday, Coe was still in the Harris County Jail.
Coe had been living with Young and her daughters in Spring when Emma fell ill on June 27.
Young took her daughter to Memorial Hermann-The Woodlands Hospital, but the girl died shortly after she made it to the emergency room. Emma's body was covered with 80 bruises and she'd suffered a skull fracture. Texas Child Protective Services has said there was signs the girl had been sexually abused.
Three weeks before Emma died, CPS received a complaint that she was a possible sexual abuse victim because she had tested positive for genital herpes. The agency did not remove Emma from her home because her mother insisted no other adults lived there and because genital herpes can be transmitted in a non-sexual manner.
Coe, convicted of aggravated assault in 2003, completed his probation for that crime last spring. Before this incident, CPS investigated Coe as a possible abuse perpetrator three times since 2005.
All of the allegations involved the son of another girlfriend. He has been indicted on charges of injuring that child, but that case has yet to come to trial.
terri.langford@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6611868.html
Emphasis added by H4K Editor |