AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: The related video was published in April 2020.
An Austin mother and her boyfriend were arrested on March 10 following the death of a 6-year-old boy on March 7 that has now been ruled a homicide.
The U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force said the child’s mother, Staleigh Coleman, 27, was arrested in the 1200 block of Miss Allison’s Way in Pflugerville without incident. Her boyfriend, Blake Howard Jones, 27, of Austin, was arrested in the 2400 block of Cromwell Circle in Austin without incident.
The U.S. Marshals said an unresponsive child had been brought to the First Choice Emergency Room Center on Riverside Drive on March 7 after reportedly sustaining burns from boiling water. The burns covered half his body and were concentrated on the torso, chest and back, with splash patterns to the arms and face.
The boy, identified as Stavian Driver, was taken to the emergency room at Dell Children's Medical Center where he later died.
Authorities requested assistance from the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force Austin Division to locate and apprehend Coleman and Jones. Task force members launched a fugitive investigation with information from the Austin Police Department to arrest the pair.
Coleman and Jones were charged with injury to a child by omission – a first-degree felony – and booked into the Travis County Jail, where they had bonds set at $100,000 each. Both are now out of jail on bond pending a grand jury indictment.
The Austin Police Department said it received a full autopsy report on Aug. 3 from the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office that ruled Stavian's death a homicide from scald injuries.
APD said the facts of the autopsy report that ruled the death a homicide will be presented to a grand jury for consideration of all appropriate charges.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact APD at 512-974-TIPS, email homicide.apd@austintexas.gov or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 512-472-8477.
This is Austin's 52nd homicide of 2021.
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