Preliminary hearing set in death of Henderson child

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 | 9:17 a.m.

An Oct. 29 preliminary hearing has been scheduled for the parents charged with second-degree murder in the death of their 18-month-old daughter.

Sophia Mendoza, 20, and Demone Tisdale, 21, did not enter pleas during a brief hearing Tuesday before Henderson Justice of the Peace Rodney Burr.

Burr declined to set bail in the case, saying he preferred to wait until after he hears the evidence against the couple, who have four other children.

Mendoza's attorney, Special Public Defender Phil Kohn, could not be reached for comment after the hearing. Tisdale's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Drew Christensen, declined to comment, saying he had not yet seen the police reports on the case.

Tisdale and Mendoza were charged Monday with second-degree murder and four counts of child abuse and neglect.

Henderson Police were called to the couple's home on Wyoming Avenue about 8 p.m. Oct. 1 after the children's grandmother visited and found Sierra dead in a bedroom and the girl's twin brother, Jacob, vomiting and having difficulty breathing.

Police said that one of the parents had called the grandmother for help.

When questioned by Henderson detectives, Mendoza said she fed formula to Sierra on Sunday, the morning of Sept. 29, and the girl vomited. Mendoza put her daughter into the bedroom and left her there because she said she wasn't feeling well, according to the arrest affidavit.

Tisdale said he knew Sierra was in the bedroom ill, but never checked on her either.

Two of the child abuse and neglect charges pertain to Jacob and a 5-month-old boy who suffered from rickets. Those charges are felonies.

The other two child abuse and neglect charges pertain to 2 and 3-year-old children and are misdemeanors.

Jacob was released from the hospital Friday and all four children are now in the custody of the county.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Vicki Monroe said she knows of no explanation as to why the twins appear to have been neglected more than the other children.

She called the case unusual. In most cases, one parent is accused of actual abuse and the other is accused of neglect because they failed to report the abuse.

"This is the first one that sticks out in my mind," where both parents are accused of actual neglect, Monroe said.