(WSVN) - A Utah mom, accused of locking her son up for over a year in a filthy bathroom, is asking for a better jail cell.
St. George News reports that Brandy Jaynes was arrested last month when police found her 12-year-old son, who cops said was emaciated and weighed just 30 pounds.
Since her arrest, Jaynes has been in a local jail cell, since her attorney Edward Flint said she cannot afford her $20,000 cash-only bond. Flint claims the cell only has a cot, and has no access to a shower.
“Either she’s got to have a reasonable bond amount she can pay, or she’s got to have a bed and a shower at the jail,” Flint told the paper.
Her attorney argues that Jaynes’ charge of second-degree felony for child abuse normally carries a bond of $10,000 or less for someone with no prior criminal history.
Flint says Jaynes is “very concerned about her son,” who was hospitalized after his mother’s arrest. The boy is now in foster care, as are his twin brother and younger sibling.
Police allege that the boy was starved and locked in a feces-covered bathroom by his mother for over a year. Flint says the public does not know the whole story, which he says will come to light during the upcoming trial.
Washington County Sheriff’s Lieutenant David Crouse said photos of the boy taken after he was removed from the home reminded him of a World War II concentration camp victim.
A doctor told deputies that the boy was the worst case of child malnourishment he had ever seen, Crouse said.
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