'Walls were smeared with feces': Parents and grandmother arrested after sexual assault claim leads police to find 3 children who can barely communicate in filth-ridden house
The youngest child in the home "had deformities in both legs and a dead roach was removed from her ear canal," authorities said.
lawandcrime.com
A veritable house of filth and horrors was discovered in Oklahoma. Now, three adults are facing child neglect and sexual assault charges.
Steven Zackariah Kittle, 35, was arrested in March on one count of child sexual abuse and recently charged with two counts of child neglect, according to Payne County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
In late June, his wife, Lindsey Nichole Pratt, 26, and his mother, Robin Jean Kittle, 59, were each arrested on three counts of child neglect. County court records also show several extant civil court cases between the defendants and orders of protection filed by the defendants against one another — and on behalf of multiple minor children against the husband and wife.
According to the Stillwater Police Department, Steven Kittle admitted during an interview with two detectives that he sexually assaulted the 4-year-old girl while the 1-year-old boy watched, on multiple occasions, in January.
Officers with the SPD were originally investigating the child sexual assault claim against Steven Kittle. That investigation led an SPD officer and a state child welfare agent to visit the trailer where the family lived. There, authorities said they found three children, three adults, six dogs, and three cats living in wretched squalor.
“The foul odor inside was unbearable,” Stillwater Police Detective Sgt. Sherae LeJeune wrote in the affidavit. “The air was thick and musty which made breathing difficult. We could not complete the walk-through without taking breaks outside for fresh air. I noticed there actually was carpet in the living room. It was saturated with so much urine and feces and walked all over that it was smashed down to a hard surface. My boots stuck to the flooring.”
“It was impossible to avoid stepping in dog feces throughout the home,” the affidavit continues. “There was old and fresh feces everywhere. There were several sticky fly traps hanging from the ceilings which were covered with bugs. I noticed there were bags of food hanging from the ceiling as well, which I later learned was to keep rodents and bugs from getting to it.”
At the time of the initial visit, police allege an 18-month-old girl’s “hands were covered with dried feces which she rubbed in her hair and eyes,” according to court documents obtained by KFOR. Additionally, that same girl’s “breathing was labored and her nose was running.”
More feces was found on the walls of a bedroom shared by a 4-year-old-girl and 1-year-old boy, police wrote.
“Their social and verbal skills were lacking for their ages,” the sergeant wrote in her affidavit, saying the two older children “communicated by pointing and grunting.”
“They still used pull-ups and were not potty-trained due to no guidance and inconsistent access to a bathroom,” the affidavit went on. “They showed signs of nutritional deficiencies and food scarcity. [The youngest child] had deformities in both legs and a dead roach was removed from her ear canal.”
