Court hearing set for mother in son’s death

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 | 4:58 p.m.

A Las Vegas woman who has been charged in connection with the March 8 death of her 3-year-old son will have a hearing in Clark County District Court later this month.

Elizabeth Stack, 28, waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Las Vegas Justice Court and was bound over on murder and abuse charges in connection with the death of her son, Leland Chris-Angel Garcia.

Her arraignment in district court will be at 1:30 p.m. July 20. She is in the Clark County Detention Center on $100,000 bail on charges of second-degree murder and five counts of child abuse with substantial bodily harm.

Stack's boyfriend, Jesse Parsons, 24, was also arrested in connection with the abuse. Parsons was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon, three counts of child abuse with substantial bodily harm and two counts of child abuse.

According to court records, Parsons was found at a recent hearing not to be competent, unable to understand the charges against him and unable to assist in his own defense.

At that hearing, Judge Jackie Glass remanded Parsons to the custody of the administrator of the Division of Mental Health Development Services for the Department of Human Resources for detention and treatment, according to court records. Once competency has been established, Parsons would be returned to court to continue proceedings, court records said.

According to a police report, officers were called shortly after midnight on March 8 to a home in the 6000 block of Bing Cherry Drive to check on a call that a 3-year-old boy wasn't breathing.

The boy was pronounced dead when he was taken to Sunrise Hospital. According to an autopsy report, the boy had suffered severe bruising to the head, the majority of his abdomen and his lower body, police said. The boy also suffered internal injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, police said.

Police have said the boy's bruises were inconsistent with an accidental injury. They said six other children also lived in the home and four of them had signs of abuse.

Investigators allege Parsons would frequently discipline Leland by striking him with a metal object or wooden paddle. He would also strike the other siblings, but the attacks were usually less violent, authorities said.

A police report said Parsons would often take Leland to the garage to beat him because the other children “babied” him. Stack told officers that Parsons said the toddler needed to “toughen up,” the report said.

Stack witnessed Parsons hit the children on several occasions, police said. She told officers she knew Parsons hit the children, but she never saw bruises on them, the report said. She said she told Parsons to stop spanking them, but he didn’t.

Police said Parsons told officers Stack asked him to spank the children when they misbehaved. He said he never spanked the girls and only used his hand on the boys.

Authorities recovered a piece of wood and a bent metal spatula from Stack’s garage. One of the children told officers Parsons used both items during spankings, the report said. Parsons then told officers he sometimes used a paddle or belt to discipline the boys.