CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- A four-month-old boy removed from a Chesterfield home this month had red marks on his body, according to court documents into the arrest of a Chesterfield mother. Jacklyn Owens was charged with felony child endangerment, child neglect and assault and battery of a family member due, in part, to the unsafe conditions in which she and her two children lived.
Jacklyn Owens is charged with felony child endangerment, child neglect and assault and battery of a family member.
"Her room was piled with trash two to three feet high," housemate Michael Carothers said. "You couldn't even open the door all the way."
Carothers said the mess inside the room Jacklyn Owens' rented in the Leafycreek Drive home was so bad, he reported her to Child Protective Services. The agency took Owens' two children, a one-year-old child and a four-month-old boy, and placed them with other family members.
Carothers posted a note on the front door for everyone to see: "A worthless piece of s---! A mother that deserves each and every year of a maximum sentence. Rot in prison."
Court documents showed Owens' four-month-old son had red marks on his body when he was removed from the home. Carothers said the child was malnourished.
"The boy had lost weight in the past month," Carothers claimed. "The children were never bathed and she would keep them in her room like prisoners."
He said there were piles of dog feces and piles clothes scattered around the room.
"You didn't even know what you were stepping on when you entered the room," he said.
Michael Carothers reported Owens to Child Protective Services.
There were seven people living in the home at the time of Owens' arrest, Carothers said. In addition to Carothers and another female housemate, Jacklyn Owens live in the home with her husband, two children and her father. Owens' husband Pierre Owens, who happens to be a registered sex offender, was not at home at the time of his wife's arrest. He was in jail on an unrelated weapons charge.
When asked if he or other housemates tried to intervene, Carothers said Jacklyn Owens would never let anyone else take the children.
Jacklyn Owens is free on bond and pregnant with a third child. She is due back in court October 31. A protective order was issued to keep her away from her children. Housemates said she has not returned to the home on Leafycreek Drive to collect the three pets she left behind.
Chesterfield Child Protective Services said the agency could not comment on this case due to privacy reasons.
