Couple Indicted in Alleged Homicide of Keyontae Holzendorf

Content material Warning: This story incorporates some particulars of an alleged case of maximum bodily and sexual little one abuse; it might be upsetting to readers.

Prosecutors in Texas have secured a grand jury indictment towards a 25-year-old mom and her 29-year-old boyfriend within the horrifying dying of the girl’s 8-year-old son. Authorities say the boy was tortured for months earlier than being brutally murdered in a motel room bathtub.

A grand jury in Harris County on Thursday returned indictments on the cost of capital homicide of a kid beneath age 10 for each Kayla Holzendorf and Dominique Lewis within the dying of Keyontae Holzendorf, the district legal professional’s workplace introduced.

“The way in which this little boy died is nearly unthinkable and completely horrifying” Harris County District Lawyer Kim Ogg mentioned in a press release. “We consider he was handcuffed, certain on the ankles and legs with ligatures and duct-tape, had his mouth taped shut and was overwhelmed so severely that he both died from blunt drive trauma or suffocated on the blood from his damaged enamel.”

If convicted, Holzendorf and Lewis face life in jail or the dying penalty. Prosecutors mentioned they haven’t determined whether or not to pursue capital punishment.

As beforehand reported by Regulation&Crime, the couple on March 24, 2021 at roughly 11:00 p.m. known as 911 and reported {that a} little one had drowned on the High quality Inn & Suites situated at 2930 W. Sam Houston Parkway. Officers with the Houston Police Division and Emergency Medical Technicians responded to the scene.

Upon arriving on the motel, first responders discovered an unresponsive Keyontae on the toilet flooring. He was soaking moist, and there was nonetheless steam within the toilet, prosecutors mentioned. Police additionally famous that Lewis had water on his clothes.

Medics carried out CPR and transported Keyontae to Texas Youngsters’s Hospital in Houston. Docs tried to resuscitate the kid, however he succumbed to the accidents and was pronounced lifeless shortly after arriving.

Holzendorf and Lewis initially informed police that they had been each asleep when the boy drowned within the bathtub and claimed they didn’t know what occurred. Nevertheless, officers on the scene reportedly mentioned that the kid had clearly sustained a plethora of accidents each previous and new that had been indicative of long-term bodily abuse.

Prosecutors mentioned that Keyontae’s accidents included “extreme ligature marks on his ankles and wrists (from handcuffs), damaged enamel, and huge items of pores and skin lacking from his thigh, chest, higher arms, and genitalia, per duct tape being ripped off frantically.” Police beforehand mentioned that Keyontae sustained “burns to the shaft of his penis, bruising to the left facet of his brow, a laceration to the left ear, small puncture wounds to totally different locations and ligature marks on his ankles and wrists.”

Investigators reportedly discovered items of duct tape with human hair caught to them discarded within the motel room trash bin together with a pair of handcuffs.

The couple informed police that Keyontae had not been to high school for about a yr and a half, per prosecutors. They allegedly mentioned they started every day by buying a big package deal of muffins from HEB, an space grocery retailer, then placing them in a basket and making Keyontae promote them in a Kroger’s parking zone by saying they had been baked by him mother. Kroger’s is one other space grocery retailer.

Holzendorf ultimately informed investigators that she and Lewis locked Keyontae within the toilet so they might have intercourse. She allegedly claimed the boy was lifeless once they checked on him later.

“That is apparent little one torture, and the proof is obvious that the defendants acted deliberately; it was capital homicide,” mentioned Assistant District Lawyer Gilbert Sawtelle, who’s prosecuting the case and is a chief within the DA’s little one fatality division.

In keeping with the DA’s workplace, a committee of senior prosecutors usually decides whether or not to hunt the dying in a case a number of months after the costs are filed.

Holzendorf and Lewis have each been detained on the Harris County Jail Facility since their preliminary arrest. Information point out that their bonds had been revoked following the capital punishment indictment.

[image via Harris County Sheriff’s Office]

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