A Louisiana couple has finally gone to trial for the murder of their severely autistic 36-year-old daughter, Lacey Ellen Fletcher. It was found “melted” into the couch, covered in excrement, sores and maggots.
The victim’s parents, Sheila Fletcher and Clay Fletcher, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month. On Wednesday, an East Feliciana Parish judge ruled it was the couple’s turn to rot in the same place for years.
disgusting scene
Lacey Fletcher’s emaciated body was found fused together by rotting skin on the sofa in her parents’ living room in Slaughter, Louisiana, in January 2022.
Blaze News previously reported that East Feliciana Parish Coroner Dr. Ewell Dewitt Bickham III speculated that the woman’s 96-pound body had been left there for more than a decade, adding, “It’s like making a horror movie.” It was reported that the scene looked like this.
“When I first walked into the house, I could smell feces, fecal matter. I want to be polite, but it was a foul odor. And when I got to the body, the person was basically sitting in a hole. , filled with liquid feces. “Urine” bicam
Said WAFB-TV. “This is the worst form of medical neglect I have ever seen. I don’t know what other adjective or adverb to add to this.”
daily mail
obtained Forensic pathologist Dana Troxclair’s autopsy report showed the victim had “polarized fibers (likely fibers from the couch) and maggots embedded in exposed bone surfaces.”
It is likely that Fletcher was infected with maggots during his lifetime.
“At the time of autopsy, there was no evidence of decomposition, thus indicating that the maggots were present prior to death,” Troxclair wrote.
In addition to the maggots and feces, authorities said Fletcher had several ulcers on his underside, suggesting he had sores all over his body.
report Defender.
Bikam determined the cause of death to be “acute medical neglect.” This neglect “led to chronic malnutrition, acute starvation, immobility, acute ulcer formation, osteomyelitis, a bone infection, and ultimately sepsis.”
The victim had not seen a doctor for at least 20 years. Sheila Fletcher, who was on a weekend trip with her husband the weekend the victim died, told police she didn’t need to go to the doctor because “she wasn’t sick,” she said.
evil parents
Sheila and Clay Fletcher later claimed that their daughter, who was reportedly diagnosed with “severe” Asperger syndrome and social anxiety, had “a sound mind to make her own decisions.”
Under this pretext, they apparently went about their daily lives while their daughter rotted in a pile of feces, right next to Sheila Fletcher’s recliner in front of the family television.
The couple were charged with second-degree murder in their daughter’s death on May 2, 2022, shortly after Sheila Fletcher resigned from her position as city councilwoman.
Their trial was scheduled to begin in June 2023. However, District Judge Kathryn Jones dismissed his charges, citing flaws in the language of the indictment affidavit.
East-West Feliciana Parish District Attorney Sam D’Aquila re-indicted the couple shortly thereafter.
Facing the prospect of life in prison without parole, Sheila and Clay Fletcher formally agreed to withdraw their not guilty pleas and plead guilty to manslaughter ahead of their scheduled trial last month.
Blaze News reported that Stephen Moore, the couple’s lawyer, said: “They were negligent, certainly. They were negligent. They loved her to death. That’s the true statement of the Fletchers. .They loved their daughter to death.”
sentencing
On Wednesday, after hearing more than six hours of witness testimony, Judge Kathryn Jones said: “Of all the things I can say about this case, the one thing that always sticks with me is that Clay and Sheila Fletcher were “I continued to choose the path of least resistance.” I came to take care of her daughter. ”
Ms Jones rejected the parents’ argument that Lacey Fletcher was of “sound mind” to make her own decisions and stressed that it was the parents’ responsibility to seek help on behalf of the victim.
Judge Jones said: “This was a tragedy. The truth is that Ms. Lacey had no access to medical or mental health care, so she died slowly as she lay on her couch.”
Clay Fletcher, who cried with his wife in court, said the victim’s “phobias, fears and social anxiety caused the world to slowly close in on her. The sofa was her sanctuary. It was there. It was her comfort zone.”
report WBRZ-TV.
Jones ultimately sentenced Clay and Sheila Fletcher to 40 years in prison on Wednesday, with each suspended for 20 years, The Advocate reported.
The judge also asked that both killers be suspended for five years after their release.
Western Feliciana District Attorney Sam D’Aquila
Said The New York Post said, “We respect the judge’s decision. We had a horse in a stable behind our house, and when we went back there, the meat had just gone from the horse’s body, and the bones were exposed.” You wouldn’t even treat your animal that way.”
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Daughter’s body found ‘melted’ on sofa, parents plead ‘no contest’ to manslaughter | Banfieldyoutube.be
