Maliyah Bass' mother's boyfriend pleads guilty in connection with 2-year-old girl's death in 2020
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- More than three years after 2-year-old Maliyah Bass' body was found floating in a bayou, her mother's boyfriend has entered a guilty plea in connection with the toddler's death.
MORE: Houston 2-year-old's death officially ruled a homicide
On Aug. 22, 2020, an Amber Alert was issued for the 2-year-old. Her mother, Sahara Ervin, and her boyfriend, Travion Thompson, told police they left the little girl at a playground outside their southwest Houston apartment while they were inside cooking breakfast. They claimed that when they returned, Maliyah was gone.
A day later, Maliyah's body was spotted in Brays Bayou by a jogger.
As law enforcement removed her body from the water, Thompson told ABC13's camera, "They have the nerve to get on Facebook and bash me and my girlfriend like we did something, and that's my baby. She know her ABCs, she know her 123s. She know her colors."
Ervin collapsed to the ground, inconsolable at the scene.
Thompson and Ervin were arrested and charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence less than two months after the child's body was recovered.
At the time of the crime, Thompson's attorney said he was on probation for an aggravated robbery charge. On Wednesday, prosecutors intended to put forth evidence in the case involving Maliyah to prove that he violated the conditions of his probation.
Lacy Johnson, the division chief for the child fatality and mental health division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said they planned to show her autopsy report, crime scene photos, video from interviews and possibly call Ervin to testify.
"He confessed he didn't protect Maliyah," Johnson said. "He confessed to taking her body and dumping it down a storm drain, and I think that would have sealed his fate, and I think he knew that."
Instead, Thompson pleaded guilty to both counts against him in the toddler's death. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Maliyah's maternal grandmother, Rosalie Jimerson, was in court Wednesday morning and became emotional when the sentence was given. She said afterward to ABC13 that justice was served.
After his sentence was handed down, 25-year-old Thompson thanked the judge for giving him the chance to see life outside of prison again.
"He's a decent human being, and his life kind of went off track but he's trying to get it back," his appointed attorney, Tyrone Moncriffe, said.
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Ervin, who entered a guilty plea on the same charges in 2022, is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
"Both Travion Thompson and Sahara Ervin were responsible for inflicting injuries on her," Johnson said. "They were responsible for failing to protect her when they should have. They were responsible for tampering with her corpse."
Johnson said it is difficult to say exactly what happened to the toddler leading up to her death. The medical examiner ruled her cause of death as "homicidal violence."
Court records said at the time of her death, she had a broken arm, extensive blunt force trauma and was beaten with something similar to an extension cord or a clothes hanger.
"Very often it's a small, vulnerable child alone in their home, and often the caregivers point the finger at each other, which is what happened in this case," Johnson said. "So I cannot tell you with any certainty exactly who inflicted what injuries on Maliyah or exactly what happened to her."
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