A jury on Friday convicted 30-year old Felisha Scroggins of Injury to a Child causing Serious Bodily Injury, rejecting her request for probation and sentencing her to 20-years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
In January 2024, members of the community attempted to help repair a van belonging to Scroggins and another individual, who described themselves as missionaries.
Their van had broken down in the Home Depot parking lot, where they had been living after arriving in Paris.
When towing the van to their house for repairs, good Samaritans observed what appeared to be a five-year old child inside the van.
Paris police and Child Protective Services investigators responded to assess the living conditions and investigate a potential human trafficking situation.
They learned that the child was actually Scroggins’s ten-year old daughter and removed her from Scroggins’s custody.
“The jurors heard about the ten year old child weighing less than 40 pounds and the months of therapy required for her to walk more than a little bit at a time or develop beyond a 3-4 year old level,” said Kaminar. “They also heard about how the child will never regain the lost growth after living in a van for seven years.”
The jury saw photos of the van’s interior, including a bucket used as a toilet with fresh feces.
“The most powerful testimony came from the child herself,” said Assistant District Attorney Erin Lewis. “She described how she would only be allowed to eat dry Cheerios for breakfast and would be given ramen noodles for dinner while her mother ate pork chops and hamburgers.”
Scroggins testified in her own defense, describing how she had taken her three year old daughter to live in a van as a missionary for years.
Despite the other testimony, Scroggins claimed that her daughter had no physical problems and defended her daughter sleeping under a shelf next to a bucket of feces.
Lamar County District Attorney Gary Young said, “We appreciate the jury’s hard work in this case. The facts in this case should be heartbreaking for any person to hear. The people of our community saw a child in horrific living conditions and summoned help for her. After that, the citizens on the jury sent a powerful message that we will protect our children.”
The case was tried in the 6th District Court before Judge Wes Tidwell. Scroggins was prosecuted by Benjamin Kaminar and Erin Lewis; she was represented by Paul Rosemergy and Joey Nelms of Paris.
