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TOQUERVILLE, Washington County — Additional charges have been filed against a Toquerville mother accused of locking her 12-year-old son in a bathroom for a year, resulting in the boy weighing just 30 pounds when he was found.
Brandy K. Jaynes, 36, was charged Jan. 9 in 5th District Court with intentional child abuse causing serious injury, a second-degree felony. On March 9, those charges were amended. She now faces three counts of intentional child abuse causing serious injury, all second-degree felonies.
A court hearing originally scheduled for Tuesday was continued until next week as Jaynes' defense attorney reviews the new charges.
Details of the alleged abuse have sparked worldwide outrage. The boy was found in a feces-filled bathroom with locks on the outside of the doors, according to police. The emaciated boy was found lying on a blanket, unable to use his legs because he was too weak.
Russell Orin Jaynes, 40, the boy's father, is charged with child abuse, a third-degree felony. Prosecutors have called the father's actions "reckless," but have contended that Brandy Jaynes is the "primary defendant."
"She is far, far and away more culpable than Russell in this whole situation, according to the evidence, the victim statements, every witnesses statement. She is the one who held him (the victim) in captivity, did not feed him appropriately, did not provide him nourishment, kept him in the conditions he was in, and actively kept everybody else away from him — people that were inquiring about him, whether it was family members, whether it was Russell," Washington County deputy attorney Angie Reddish-Day said in February.
The couple's two other children are healthy, police said.
