Posted on Mon, Sep. 17, 2007

ANN BLYTHE
(Raleigh) News & Observer

DURHAM --A Texas couple whose 4-year-old son was found dehydrated and malnourished in the cab of their 18-wheeler truck in Durham pleaded guilty today to second-degree murder and felony child abuse in the child's death.

Richard Dowen, 34, was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years. His wife, Amber Dowen, 22, faces 17 to 24 years when she is sentenced Dec. 3. The two appeared this morning in Durham Superior Court before Judge Ronald Stephens.

The couple, of Riverside, Texas, originally were charged with first-degree murder in the death of Randolph Thomas. Randolph weighed 19.5 pounds at his death in September 2005, about half the average weight for a child of his age.

The couple, along with Randolph and their then 15-month-old daughter, were in Durham to make a freight delivery when Richard Dowen flagged down a sheriff's deputy and reported that his stepson was ill. The deputy found the boy shrouded in a blanket in Amber Dowen's lap.

The child died two days later of malnutrition and complications from aspiration pneumonia.

The Dowens' daughter appeared healthy, law enforcement officers said. She was placed in the custody of the local Social Services Department.

Investigators concluded that the couple had started starving Randolph five months earlier.

The boy also had scars on his head and chest and extensive bruising on his scalp, the fronts of his legs and the tops of his feet. There were also scars on his abdomen and another healed scar on his forehead.

At the time of Randolph's death, the sheriff from the Dowens' hometown reported that one of his investigators had gone to the trailer where the Dowens lived on March 19, 2005, because of reports that the child had a large bruise on his face.

When caseworkers from the county's child protective services tried to investigate, they couldn't locate the family, the sheriff said.

http://www.charlotte.com/109/story/281784.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor