BREWTON, Ala. — District Judge Eric Coale set bonds of $750,000 each on a Flomaton couple charged with torture and willful abuse of a child and attempted murder, issuing the order Wednesday after an Aniah’s Law hearing the previous day.
Coale’s order also states that Cynthia Tedder, 36, and Eric McClure, 41, both of 843 Titi St. in Flomaton, are to have no contact with the victim if they make bail.
A preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday was postponed until October at the request of the defense.
The charges are allegations. Both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
How the Case Began
Flomaton police received a telephone call from someone at Sacred Heart Hospital at 5:13 a.m. last Tuesday concerning a 15-year-old child who appeared to have been abused and malnourished. The investigation that followed led to the couple’s arrests and a search of their home.
South Alabama News is not publishing details that could identify the child.
Tuesday’s Hearing
Coale had scheduled a pretrial detention hearing and a preliminary hearing for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the courthouse.
Court-appointed defense attorneys Paul Harden Jr. and Shane Cooper objected to holding the preliminary hearing that day, saying they did not have enough information to proceed. Coale granted the motion and reset the preliminary hearing for October.
That objection is routine and consequential. A preliminary hearing requires the defense to cross-examine the state’s witnesses on the evidence supporting probable cause. Counsel appointed shortly before a hearing frequently has not received discovery, and proceeding without it forfeits much of the hearing’s value to the defendant.
The Testimony
District Attorney Steve Billy’s only witness was Flomaton Police Lt. Thaihee Staples, who testified that he went to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola after the department received the call.
Staples testified that the child weighed between 24 and 26 pounds on arrival at the hospital, and gained about 15 pounds while in the intensive care unit there. The child has since been transferred to UAB Medical Center in Birmingham and remains in critical condition.
He testified that he observed bed sores on the child’s legs, arms, shoulders and back, and that the child was on a breathing machine and totally dependent on others for care. Staples said the child has cerebral palsy.
Staples testified that he relayed what he observed at the hospital, and what he learned from speaking with doctors, to Police Chief Justin Hetrick, and that warrants were filed for the couple’s arrest.
Asked about doctors’ assessments, Staples said physicians in Pensacola told him the neglect of bed sores and the malnutrition did not happen overnight but was prolonged.
The Search of the Home
Billy asked about living conditions in the house. Staples said he was not present for the search but that, based on photographs, he saw two bunk beds stacked in a way that would prevent the child from getting out of the bed.
Billy asked whether it looked like a cage. Staples said yes.
The Defense Position
Cooper noted that the couple had reached out to pediatricians because the child was vomiting and had bed sores but could not get an appointment.
According to testimony, the couple took the child to Jay Hospital on July 31 after going to Walmart to purchase over-the-counter medication.
Cooper questioned whether the bed configuration was designed to keep the child from falling out and being injured. He also asked Staples whether he believed the couple posed a danger to the community, and Staples said no.
Cooper and Harden asked for a reasonable bond, arguing that the couple was not a danger to the community.
The Prosecution’s Response
Billy rejected that characterization directly.
“Over a period of time they put the child in a cage like a dog,” Billy said. “They took care of their pets. They are dangerous. Anybody who would do this to another human being, they are dangerous.”
Other Children Removed
Staples testified that three other children in the house, ages 13, 17 and 18, have been removed from the home and placed in the custody of Jessica Slate. Slate, who works for the Town of Flomaton, gave a written statement. Staples testified that Slate said the last time she saw the victim was during a beach trip in July.
Staples also noted that McClure was an employee of the Town of Flomaton.
What an Aniah’s Law Hearing Decides
The proceeding Tuesday was a hearing under Aniah’s Law, the constitutional amendment Alabama voters approved in 2022 that expanded the circumstances in which a judge may deny bail entirely.
Before the amendment, the Alabama Constitution guaranteed that persons charged with criminal offenses were bailable by sufficient sureties, with an exception only for capital offenses. Judges could set high bonds but could not deny bail outright in most cases.
Aniah’s Law added an enumerated list of offenses for which pretrial detention without bail may be ordered. The process requires the prosecution to move for detention, and requires the court to find by clear and convincing evidence that no combination of release conditions will reasonably ensure the defendant’s appearance, protect the community or any person, or prevent obstruction of justice.
The law is named for Aniah Blanchard, a 19-year-old college student abducted from an Auburn convenience store in 2019 and later found dead; the man charged in her death had been free on bond in an earlier violent case.
Coale took the case under advisement Tuesday and issued his decision Wednesday. The outcome — $750,000 bonds with a no-contact condition rather than detention without bail — represents a middle position: substantial financial conditions and a court-ordered restriction rather than outright denial of release.
The Charges
Both defendants are charged with torture and willful abuse of a child and with attempted murder.
Alabama’s aggravated child abuse statute covers a responsible person who tortures, willfully abuses, cruelly beats or otherwise willfully maltreats a child, and includes conduct that occurs over a period of time. Attempted murder requires proof of intent to cause death together with an overt act toward that end.
The combination of charges reflects the prosecution’s theory that the conduct alleged was not only abusive but was such that death was the intended or contemplated result — a theory the defense will test at the preliminary hearing and, if the case is bound over, before a grand jury.
What Comes Next
The preliminary hearing is set for October. At that hearing, the state must present evidence sufficient to establish probable cause, and the defense will have the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses with the benefit of discovery it said it lacked Tuesday.
If probable cause is found, the case would be bound over to a grand jury for consideration of an indictment.
South Alabama News will report on the preliminary hearing when it is held.