According to police, 44-year-old Etter Hughes moved from Arkansas to the rat-infested apartment of 47-year-old Mary Martinez, a woman she had met in prison.
Hughes brought along her 13-year-old son and the two younger sons of her cousin, who was moving to Wisconsin at a later time.
Almost immediately after moving in, 7-year-old Trevion and his 9-year-old brother suffered beatings at the hands of Martinez, and were routinely denied food.
Investigators say Martinez would kick them in the head, punch them in the back, burn them with cigarettes and whip them with electrical cords. Police say that at no time during this abuse did Hughes intervene.
That changed last week when Trevion was found unresponsive with his eyes were rolling back into his head.
When Martinez saw the boy’s condition, she allegedly told Etter she and the boys needed to get out of her house and to drop Trevion off in the woods.
Instead, Hughes took the two brothers to the hospital. Despite her finally doing the right thing, it was too late for Trevion. According to police, he weighed only 44 lbs when admitted and had so many cuts and bruises that there were “too many to count.”
Despite doctors spending six hours trying to keep him alive, Trevion died from his injuries.
Trevion’s brother was also admitted to the hospital with similar injuries. Police say he was severely malnourished and had injuries from head to toe. Sometime during all of this, Hughes gave a note to a nurse stating that Trevion’s brother was responsible for his brother’s injuries.
Both Hughes and Martinez were arrested and charged with a combined eight felonies, one which carries a 25-year maximum prison sentence. They are currently in jail on $150,000 bail.
This isn’t the first time Hughes has been accused of not stopping the abuse of a child that led to the child’s death. In 2003 Hughes’ sister and her daughter, then 17, were convicted of abusing a 1-year-old to death for two weeks in Hughes’ home.
Her sister was sentenced to 17-years in prison, while Hughes was convicted of fatal child neglect and sentenced to 18 months in prison. That’s where she met Martinez, who was serving time for a burglary conviction.
Etter Hughes and Mary Martinez
This article was written by Morbid for The Dreamin Demon - the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.
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