Grand jury indicts caretakers of Fort Worth boy, 3, who died under state supervision
A grand jury on Wednesday indicted two caretakers of Amari Boone, a 3-year-old under state supervision who died of a blow to his head in Fort Worth in April.
Deondrick Foley, 37, was indicted on seven counts of injury to a child by omission-bodily injury. Joseph Delancy, 29, was indicted on one count of injury to a child by omission-serious bodily injury and on four counts of injury to a child by omission-bodily injury.
Fort Worth police arrested Foley and Delancy, who are partners, on Jan. 22.
The charge of injury to a child by omission will require that prosecutors prove that Foley and Delancy failed “to report or act on the physically abusive injuries occurring to the victim, or seek immediate medical attention.” The indictments were announced by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Amari’s father, Rodney Boone, has said that he hoped a grand jury would consider an indictment of murder.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services oversaw Amari’s care. The agency held permanent managing conservatorship of the boy at the time of his death.
Foley and Delancy drove Amari to Cook Children’s Medical Center on April 10. He had a fractured skull and other critical injuries and died two days later. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of the boy’s death was blunt force trauma of the head, and the manner was homicide.
Delancy reluctantly told police that a fall from a bathroom counter to a hardwood floor explained Amari’s head injury, according to an affidavit supporting the arrests written by Fort Worth police Detective Christopher Parker. Delancy said he stepped away from the room before the fall. He returned, and the child “jumped back up” and was talking, according to Delancy’s account. Nothing appeared to be seriously wrong, and Amari fell asleep, he said.
Foley and Delancy told police Amari was under a playpen when they woke later in the morning. He was unresponsive, and they headed to Cook Children’s from their apartment in the 1200 block of Dover Cliff Court, the suspects said.
A Cook Children’s physician told the detective that a fall from a bathroom counter could not have caused the “massive skull fracture and massive brain injury and massive bleeding around the brain” that Amari suffered, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit describes detectives asking the suspects about the status of Amari’s toilet training and whether anger with accidents fueled physical abuse. It notes that Amari suffered previous injuries, including a pelvic fracture and bruises and cuts that occurred while Amari was in Foley and Delancy’s custody.
Texas DFPS removed Amari and his younger brother from their biological parents on Oct. 3, 2018, and placed them in foster care, according to the department’s report on its investigation of the boy’s death.
The department received a report that Ariana George, the boys’ mother, abused drugs and that Amari was present during physical altercations. It determined that Amari’s brother tested positive for marijuana when the sibling was born.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 7:13 PM.
