Klent Elwoods and Lisa Jones Arrested Suspects in the Murder of Jada Moore

Posted by Lorie Orum on Saturday, May 18, 2024

Klent Elwoods and Lisa Jones Arrested Suspects in the Murder of Jada Moore

Klent Elwoods, 62, and his wife, Lisa Jones, 57, of suburban Chicago have been charged with murder in the beating death of their 5-year-old daughter, Jada Moore. Jada was hit 12 times with a belt for defecating on herself, and the grandfather allegedly admitted to being “a little too rough” during the fatal attack.

On Monday, Illinois officials told the court that 5-year-old Jada Moore had been beaten for more than two months, leaving her with severe bruises that are usually only seen in people who have been in car accidents, NBC Chicago reported.

Klent Elwoods, 62, and Lisa Jones, 57, of Park Forest, who were the victim’s grandparents, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Jada’s death, which the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said was a multiple-injury homicide caused by child abuse.

After 11 p.m. on Friday, police and paramedics were called to the couple’s home on Osage Street to check on a kid who was “not responding.” This is how they found out about the terrible crime. Prosecutors said that Elwoods was the person who called 911 and told the dispatcher, “I was hitting my little granddaughter, and now she’s dead.”

The police found Jada “lying on the couch completely naked.” Before the girl was taken by helicopter to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she died early Saturday morning, EMTs did CPR on her.

He told police that he started beating Jada because she wet her underwear, according to a police report that Law & Crime.com got its hands on. Elwoods is said to have said, without being asked, “I was too hard on my grandson” while riding in the back of a police car. Jones allegedly told police that her granddaughter “had a history of ‘pooping’ herself,” and that the last time this happened,

Elwoods told her he would beat her with a belt if she got dirty again. When the 5-year-old went to the bathroom alone again on Friday night, the grandfather reportedly made good on his threat. The story says that Elwoods then told Jada what he would do if she pooped on herself again.

“Then Elwoods took a belt and made Jada bend over. Elwoods then punched Jada ten to twelve times in the bottom.” Her grandma said that the girl fell to the ground with each blow. The last time the 5-year-old was hit, she didn’t get up.

A search of the suspects’ home turned up a dirty pair of children’s underwear, a belt, a letter from Jada’s mother that was notarized giving the grandparents control over Jada’s school and medical decisions, and a calendar with four dates in June that supposedly show when Jada had defecated before. In court, prosecutors said that both of Jada’s grandfathers admitted to hitting her often with a belt, their bare hands, and a shoe.

An autopsy showed that the girl was covered from head to toe with “bruises, abrasions, and scars in various stages of healing.” She also had bags on her back, bottom, and legs, which is called an internal avulsion or contusion. “Because of the force needed to cause an avulsion pocket, they are often seen in auto accident injuries,” prosecutors said.

“Avulsion pockets are a sign that the victim is losing blood into soft tissue. Children are more likely to get them because their blood volume is lower overall.” There was also bleeding between Jada’s brain and skull, which is a sign of a brain damage.

The beatings started about a month after Jada stayed with her grandparents. Her grandparents took her in at the beginning of April, saying they would give the 5-year-old “a better life at home” because her mother in Atlanta had fallen on hard times. At the hearing on Monday, bail was refused for both grandparents. They have a court date on August 2.

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