Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.
A young mother and father from Henderson are facing murder and neglect charges this morning after police found their 1-year-old daughter dead Tuesday night and their four other children sick, authorities said.
Sophia Mendoza, 20, and Demone Tisdale, 21, were being held in the Henderson Detention Center this morning, charged with one count each of murder and five counts each of child abuse and neglect.
Henderson Police were called to the home on Wyoming Avenue about 8 p.m. when the children's grandmother visited and found the 1-year-old dead in a bedroom and the girl's twin brother vomiting and having difficulty breathing.
Police said that one of the parents had called one of the children's grandmothers for help.
The other three children, ages 3, 2 and 5 months, also showed signs of neglect, police said.
The grandmother called police.
The four children were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where the 1-year-old twin remained this morning in critical condition. The others were treated and released into county custody.
Police said that the infant had been placed in a bedroom and that the parents didn't check on her for two days. It's not clear when the infant died, but Lewis said the 1-year-old girl was seen alive on Monday.
Lewis said police are still trying to find out why the couple didn't seek medical care for their children.
"Why did they get to that point in the first place? That's what we're trying to figure out," Henderson Police spokesman Officer Shane Lewis said.
Police found the house in disarray, Lewis said, noting there weren't enough beds or food for the children.
"Anytime a 1-year-old child dies, it's extraordinarily shocking," Lewis said. "It's not something any of us want to see, and it strikes a deeper chord because a lot of us have kids."
An autopsy will be performed on the girl today.
Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the Clark County Department of Family Services, said her agency investigated the safety of Tisdale and Mendoza's children in December 2001 as a result of a domestic violence incident.
The agency found no evidence of child abuse or neglect. Mendoza had plans to move with her children to a different state out of concern for her safety. "This mother was taking active steps to protect her children," she said.
Police are also checking into the couple's background.
According to court records, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen issued a warrant for Tisdale's arrest Sept. 3, when Tisdale failed to appear in court for a status hearing in a battery-domestic violence case in which Mendoza was the alleged victim.
Clark County District Court records show that Tisdale pleaded guilty in June 1998 to robbery charges and was placed on five years' probation. In February Tisdale acknowledged that he had not been reporting to his probation officer and tested positive for a controlled substance, records show.
Neighbor Casie Sadler she was aware of only three children in the household.
"I'm not surprised at what happened, given the way they did things," Sadler said. The children would play outside without clothing, and the couple often fought loudly.
"They would scream at each other and fight and throw things. You could hear them fighting in the alley sometimes until 3 o'clock in the morning. So it's sad, but it doesn't surprise me at all.
"The kids used to sit outside and throw rocks into the street, and there was never anyone out there watching them."
Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell, who has practiced law for 32 years, was shocked by the allegations which he learned of them this morning.
"I don't have a personal recollection of a case where there was apparently this much neglect," Bell said. "If this is true this is just outrageous."
His office has not yet received the file in the case, but will look at the case closely to determine the appropriate charges to be filed, Bell said.
The couple have been charged with open murder until the district attorney's office decides the specific level of homicide.
Sun reporters
Erica Johnson, Jeffrey Libby and Kimberly Smith contributed to this story.
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