TX - Halle Smith, 8, disabled, starved to death, Houston, 16 Jan 2009

Web Posted: 02/05/2010 10:10 CST

HOUSTON — A Houston woman is accused of starving her 8-year-old daughter to death a year ago, authorities said.

Almita Nicole Lockhart, 34, is accused of neglecting Halle Shamille Smith to the point that she weighed just 15 1/2 pounds when she died, said Estella Olguin, spokeswoman for Children's Protective Services. Lockhart is charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury.

Halle, who was born severely premature, suffered a stroke and had underlying health issues that required her to be fed through a tube, was unresponsive when Lockhart took her to an emergency room in on Jan. 16, 2009. Lockhart was charged on Jan. 14, 2010, and jailed Tuesday after autopsy results and further investigation led authorities to believe the girl's condition was intentionally inflicted, Olguin said.

Lockhart's court-appointed defense attorney, Daphne Pattison, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lockhart held Halle in an empty apartment in the 13500 block of Northborough in the Greenspoint area of north Houston, authorties said, and apparently did not feed her properly.

According to Donna Hawkins with the Harris County District Attorney's Office, Halle was born Feb. 24, 2000, and immediately suffered from convulsions and breathing problems, then later contracted tuberculosis. A feeding tube was inserted, and she had it for the rest of her life.

Court documents show Halle was provided with 24-hour nursing care when she was 20 months old, but the child's father — who is not charged — said he and Lockhart discontinued it because they tired of medical personnel coming in and out. :furious:

more here

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Houston_mom_accused_of_fatally_starving_8-year-old_girl.html

why was the 'father' not charged???

:furious: Outrageous!!! And yes, the father should be charged too. 15 and 1/2 pounds?!?!

From TMs link:

"According to medical records, Halle weighed 35 pounds at age 2, dropped to 23 pounds by age 4 and weighed 27 pounds in November 2006, the last time it appears she was seen by doctors or nurses. She lost 40 percent of her body weight between then and the date of her death of malnutrition and dehydration." :furious: :banghead: :furious:

bet *Mom* hasn't missed any meals...who the he$$ fails to take a child that sick to the doctor for three years?? And no one noticed? :curses:

good lord! how did all those years go by with visits to the doctor that documented the massive weight loss and NO ONE DID ANYTHING? yeah, the parents need to be jailed, but who are these "doctors"? they never bothered to report them? especially if they knew that they had NINE other children that could have been being starved to death as well? pathetic.

This mother and father should be starved to death themselves as far as I am concerned !!!

my guess is they are gonna try to sell her being a premie as an excuse to why she lost weight that she already had.
this is disgusting, and what is this, the 5th child starvation on websleuths this week? grrrrrrrrrrrrr

This will make your blood boil....

http://www.khou.com/news/Girl-8-dies-weighing-15-pounds-mom-accused-of-starving-her--83614317.html

“The medical examiner said her death was a homicide and said it was due to malnutrition and dehydration,” Hawkins said.

CPS said Lockhart is the mother of nine other children. However, when CPS looked into her situation after Halle's death, they said they found none of the children, who are between the ages of 2 to 18, were living at home. Some of them hadn't been in school, CPS said. CPS said it is in the process of terminating Lockhart's parental rights.

“We had concerns because, once we found those children, they were being taken care of by adults who had drugs and weapons in the home,” Olguin said.

CPS said it had visited Halle and Lockhart's home back in 2006 after Lockhart was convicted and served time for illegal drugs.
“When we saw her she appeared healthy. The house was furnished. There was food in the home. The children appeared healthy,” Olguin said. “So something happened in the last two-and-a-half years.”

There is alot more at the link...including a picture of the mother, and nasty apartment...

That breeder can't be more than 30 years old and she has had 9 kids. I'm sure the government is supporting each and every one. Hey *advertiser censored*, stop *advertiser censored****g. What a pathetic piece of #)*$). There is no excuse for this. Sorry to be so nasty, but I'm disgusted. I can assure that the murdered child received a disability check and medicaid. The peg feedings wouldn't have cost her anything. All she had to do was get her lazy (** to the store to get it. She was probably too busy getting pregnant again. I guess that was too much to ask.

It is a red flag when parents discontinue home services when there is an obvious need. They didn't want anyone to know about their loser lifestyle. That alone tells you they knew they were wrong. Stupid stupid stupid losers.

jnTexas said:

This will make your blood boil....

http://www.khou.com/news/Girl-8-dies-weighing-15-pounds-mom-accused-of-starving-her--83614317.html

“The medical examiner said her death was a homicide and said it was due to malnutrition and dehydration,” Hawkins said.

CPS said Lockhart is the mother of nine other children. However, when CPS looked into her situation after Halle's death, they said they found none of the children, who are between the ages of 2 to 18, were living at home. Some of them hadn't been in school, CPS said. CPS said it is in the process of terminating Lockhart's parental rights.

“We had concerns because, once we found those children, they were being taken care of by adults who had drugs and weapons in the home,” Olguin said.

CPS said it had visited Halle and Lockhart's home back in 2006 after Lockhart was convicted and served time for illegal drugs.
“When we saw her she appeared healthy. The house was furnished. There was food in the home. The children appeared healthy,” Olguin said. “So something happened in the last two-and-a-half years.”

There is alot more at the link...including a picture of the mother, and nasty apartment...

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From the same article:

the only photos available of her -- taken at the time of her death -- are disturbing

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“[They are] probably the worst pictures I have ever seen,” Olguin said. “It’s upsetting to look at them

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REALLY...a mother....again!? There are far too many wonderful families that would treasure these children. A child is such a wonerful and precious gift. Why waste time or taxpayers money jailing these people. IMO the aren't worth it!!

These crimes are very disturbing and heartbreaking! Why wouldn't the bio-donors allow Halle to be placed in a long term nursing facility, if they couldn't handle her care? Oh, snap! That would require thoughtful and loving consideration from bio-donors on Halles behalf.... And Ten children at 34 years old? Actually 30 years old, What? Is she a rabbit?

One more example of someone who shouldn't be allowed to have children. What a waste of skin this woman is.

Another baby starved to death, Lord help me. I agree, this is moving towards the unprecedented but I do wonder how often it goes unnoticed. Where are the psychologists when we need them? I want to know, other than Munchausen's by Proxy, just what the pathology is behind this form of slow murder. If anyone finds a good write-up on starvation by mothers, I'd love to see it.

I see a number of issues here which need to be examined. First, I don't "like" the fact that this young Mom has 10 kids, either. But there's not a darned thing that a civilized society can do about that. Once we allow a woman with ten kids and no job to be sterilized, watch out, as they'll come for one of us next. That's a slippery slope.

Women have been having more children than they can handle since the beginning of time and kids make it through without being starved or scarred. My husband is the eldest of ten born to a Catholic mom--10 kids in eleven years. They weren't on welfare but they were dirt poor and depended on the church for charity. I did the math and this mom was only 15-16 when she had her first. I do wish that some kind nurse would have sat her down and offered her Implanon (a B/C implant that is inserted in the upper arm and which lasts 3 yrs--great idea!!)

The little girl's medical condition is a major factor in that she should have had some sort of case worker. It's clear that she had multiple disabilities and she would have qualified in any state for services (and yes, an SSI check). She would have qualified for all sorts of therapies, including a feeding therapist. The Mom can certainly refuse services but that sets in motion a number of things. She was being weighed and checked by a doctor sporadically.

That doctor's office had an obligation IMO to follow up with CPS if the Mom didn't show up for the next appt. That's what went awry IMO. The doctor's office should have made a report which would have opened the door for CPS. I also have to wonder where school came into play for this child. She could have been home-schooled that seems unlikely. Once again, another checkpoint that was missed. It seems as if this mom moved around which we've seen frequently. That tells me that Texas must not have some of the newer models of child-tracking in place. Ours is just getting up and running in Oregon.

I noticed under one of the articles that there was a comment that "CPS might not have had a legal responsibility to check but they did have a moral/ethical responsibility to check". Carefully think that one out. Do we really want CPS to check up on kids who have no connection with the system? They'd determined that the girl was fine and the apt. clean with food in the pantry at some point. Trust me on this one, the standard of expectation is very low here as families are allowed to keep house and offer any food they wish. Once again, think what it would be like if that weren't true. We can't legislate organic peanut butter and fresh spinach and floor scrubbing every Tuesday. So, once CPS is done, they have to wait for another report as their hands are tied. Why was no other report called in. CPS does not have the resources to hold open cases on children that have been deemed "fine". Personally, I wouldn't want them to. Why weren't people calling this in? Did no one ever see this child? Why not?

I find it very disturbing that this little girl and her mom were sequestered without the other children in an empty apt. I wonder if the mom was prostituting, using, or was on a path of destruction. I wonder if she literally sat by and watched her little girl die as she was, in a way, killing herself. I know many won't care and they'll want her hung.

I care as I want to figure out how this happened so maybe, just maybe, it won't happen the next time.

Spurser said:

That breeder can't be more than 30 years old and she has had 9 kids. I'm sure the government is supporting each and every one. Hey *advertiser censored*, stop *advertiser censored****g. What a pathetic piece of #)*$). There is no excuse for this. Sorry to be so nasty, but I'm disgusted. I can assure that the murdered child received a disability check and medicaid. The peg feedings wouldn't have cost her anything. All she had to do was get her lazy (** to the store to get it. She was probably too busy getting pregnant again. I guess that was too much to ask.

It is a red flag when parents discontinue home services when there is an obvious need. They didn't want anyone to know about their loser lifestyle. That alone tells you they knew they were wrong. Stupid stupid stupid losers.

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:clap: :clap:

When Halle died, the extent of her "possessions" were a shirt and a purple blanket. Further, she's lying in an unmarked grave.

I wrote about this over on the front page of Dreamin' Demon, and some of our members/commenters have expressed interest in donating for a marker for Halle. I'm contacting various authorities in Houston to see if such a fund exists or will be set up; I thought I'd post here in case anyone has any info or would like me to share what I find out.

Lizard said:

When Halle died, the extent of her "possessions" were a shirt and a purple blanket. Further, she's lying in an unmarked grave.

I wrote about this over on the front page of Dreamin' Demon, and some of our members/commenters have expressed interest in donating for a marker for Halle. I'm contacting various authorities in Houston to see if such a fund exists or will be set up; I thought I'd post here in case anyone has any info or would like me to share what I find out.

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Thank you for posting here, Lizard.

Please let us know if there's a fund to get this angel a headstone....I want to contribute if there's a way to do so.

Texas Mist said:

Thank you for posting here, Lizard.

Please let us know if there's a fund to get this angel a headstone....I want to contribute if there's a way to do so.

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I just got a contact name and number from one of the Chronicle reporters--I'll keep you updated.

MadeaBecBec said:

These crimes are very disturbing and heartbreaking! Why wouldn't the bio-donors allow Halle to be placed in a long term nursing facility, if they couldn't handle her care? Oh, snap! That would require thoughtful and loving consideration from bio-donors on Halles behalf.... And Ten children at 34 years old? Actually 30 years old, What? Is she a rabbit?

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That would require her to give up a welfare check. :furious:

ANOTHER CPS FAILURE! I swear I am gonna lose it if I see one more child dead because of a system that cares more about how prisoner of war were tortured then they care about our USA children.What is it going to take to make it stop.If I was in charge Caseworkers would go to jail for at least 25 years if they let a child slip thru the cracks and die,then maybe they would do their da@m jobs.

Apostapler said:

That would require her to give up a welfare check. :furious:

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EXACTLY!! And having a disabled child afforded her more tax payer money. Too many women are having babies, multiple babies, as a way to support themselves, the fathers of their children and their lazy, drug abusing, partying lifestyles. I don't think giving this woman birth control at 15 would have made a difference.

Believe me, I've heard young girls/women fess up that they have had child after child because the more they have, the more money they get.