Grand jury indicts couple in death of child who fell from 8-story Independence apartment
.jpeg "A Jackson County grand jury has charged Moses Bass and Destiny Randle with child endangerment in the death of the 3-year-old boy who fell from their 8-story apartment at Independence Towers in Independence.")
A grand jury has indicted a father and his girlfriend on child endangerment charges after a 3-year-old boy fell to his death out of a window of an 8-story apartment in Independence in late July, according to court documents.
A Jackson County grand jury charged 30-year-old Moses Lee Bass and 29-year-old Destiny Leeann Randle each with a felony count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The grand jury alleged the father and his girlfriend failed to supervise the child while he was in a room that contained a window with a damaged screen that was able to be opened, resulting in the child’s death.
The charges replace similar charges that were filed within days of the child’s death. Moses and Randle remain free after each posted $10,000 of a $100,000 bond. Special conditions of their release, including not having contact with their three other children remain in effect.
Moses and Randle are scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 5 in the Eastern Jackson County Courthouse in Independence. If found guilty, they face between 10 and 30 years, or life, in prison.
Sometime before 10:05 a.m. on July 29, the child fell from the window of their apartment at Independence Towers, 728 N. Jennings Road, according to Independence police.
Police have yet to publicly identify the child, although a family member identified the child by his first name, Tidus. Funeral services for 3-year-old Tidus L. Bass, who died on July 29, are scheduled for Aug. 31.
Firefighters found the child lying in the grass outside the building, unconscious but breathing. He was rushed to a hospital and immediately transferred to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. The boy was pronounced dead few hours later.
Court documents show Bass and Randle knew the window was a safety hazard since June 2023, and that the children had been able to bypass the locks since December. Bass told police he would place a pole in the window’s track to keep it closed, but one of the children had learned how to remove it and unlock the window.
For months, residents have complained about poor living conditions at the high-rise apartment building. Earlier this year, Fannie Mae filed a lawsuit against the building’s owner, 728 N Jennings RD Partners, LLC, seeking an emergency appointment of a receiver. Fannie Mae contended that the building’s owner failed to maintain the building according to their loan agreement.
On May 16, a Jackson County judge appointed Trigild Inc. in San Diego as a receiver. In May, Trigild took over management of the property from Tango Management, owned by the LLC managed by Parker Webb.
Last week, tenants renewed their call for the building’s new landlord to make repairs, saying maintenance issues had continued to worsen.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 11:23 AM.
