Mother and boyfriend charged in death of toddler burned in oven

Racqual Thompson, 25, and her 21-year-old boyfriend Cornell Malone were booked into the Harris County jail on Tuesday morning and appeared in probable cause court that afternoon. The couple didn’t have much to say after being charged in the incident. Both are being held on bonds of $36,000 each, according to ABC13.

From left: Racqual Thompson, 25, and Cornell Malone, 21, each face four counts of endangering a child.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office

Citing Child Protective Services (CPS) officials, Fox News is reporting one of Thompson’s children, a three-year-old boy, admitted to putting 19-month-old J’zyra Thompson into the oven at the apartment in northeast Houston on the night of November 16.

According to court records filed on Monday by the prosecutor’s office, Thompson says she had only left the children alone for “about thirty minutes,” while she picked up Malone from work. Later that same night, Thompson says she put the children to bed and she and Malone went out to get a pizza and visit Malone’s brother.

The story is a little different than the one she told police originally, as reported in Digital Journal on Nov. 21. At that time, she has said they went to pick up a pizza and then had to stop and pick up a prescription.

The couple said they were gone about two hours when they went to get pizza, and on returning home, they found the three children crying hysterically and pointing toward the kitchen. “Mr. Malone stated that when they returned and went into the apartment, he could ‘smell something burning,'” according to a probable cause affidavit.

In the kitchen, the range had been tipped over with the oven door facing the floor. Malone “stated he uprighted the ‘range’ and the next thing he noticed was J’zyra was lying on the floor. He stated that she was obviously burned and deceased,” according to the affidavit. The oven had apparently been turned on “all the way.”

Local station Click2 Houston has learned from neighbors that Thompson regularly left the children home by themselves. A neighbor, Jeremy Tilley, said, “I’ve never heard of a baby being burned up, and nobody being held responsible. I think that’s what they needed to do.”

Tilley added the couple had been bragging about not being charged with anything: “They were saying that it wasn’t their fault and that they’re gonna get away with it, and they weren’t there and this and that.”