LUBBOCK, TEXAS (KLBK/KAMC/WBTW)— A Lubbock, Texas man was charged with capital murder on Wednesday morning for the death of a baby on Tuesday, News13’s sister station KLBK/KAMC reports.
Trevor Rowe, 27, was arrested Wednesday morning.
An arrest warrant said Rowe killed Marion Jester-Montoya, less than a year old, by “confining her in a backpack, inside a vehicle, for an extended period.”
The warrant said Rowe is not the father of the child, but was dating her mother. The warrant said he took Marion to his job site at 130th and Upland Avenue and then left her in a backpack on the floorboard of a car. At some point, he discovered that she got out of the backpack. He put her back in. By lunchtime, he checked on her and found she was “lightly crying but breathing.” He then went to a fast-food drive through. He also went to two stores.
After lunch, the warrant said he placed the backpack into the trunk of the car with Marion inside. Just before 5:00 pm, he checked on her, and she was not breathing.
He called 911 and began CPR.
“He knew that placing a person into a trunk was dangerous to human life,” the warrant said. “Rowe advised that placing someone into a backpack was even more dangerous.”
Rowe was held Wednesday on a $2 million bond.
A Facebook donation page has been set up for the child.
Marion’s family spoke to KLBK/KAMC on Wednesday, saying they were planning the child’s first birthday party.
“We were planning her first birthday,” Sheilah Montoya, Marion’s grandmother, said. “It was going to be Minnie Mouse.”
“We found the dress we were getting for her,” said Montoya.
KLBK/KAMC also reports that Rowe was arrested previously on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child.
Rowe was arrested
on the evening of March 5, 2018. The case was later dismissed “in the interest of justice.”
Court records did not explain further what was meant by “in the interest of justice.”
Police responded to a burglary alarm at a home in the 3300 block of 88th Street. The front door was unlocked, and police heard a child crying. Police found two children inside.
The police report said, “We looked around the listed address for an adult that may have been home watching the children. There were no adults home.”
Police called Children’s Protective Services. While police were on scene, Rowe came back to the house.
A police report said, “[Rowe] stated that he had left the children alone, because they were sleeping, and they were going to need food when they woke up. [Rowe] advised he thought it would be fine to ride his bike to get them food.”
In the current case against Rowe for capital murder, court records said the little girl was not his own child. But in the 2018 police report, Rowe was described as the father of the two children left alone.
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