Bond Denied for Gwinnett Mother Accused of Starving Autistic Daughter

Bond was denied for a Gwinnett County mother who faces charges that she and her husband starved her autistic teenage daughter and kept her in a small room that “reeked of feces and urine.”

Jade Marie Anne Jacobs, 35, of La Mesa Drive in Lawrenceville is charged with cruelty to children and false imprisonment. Police are still searching for the girl’s stepfather, William Anthony Brown.

Gwinnett Chief Magistrate Judge Kristina Blum ruled Thursday that Jacobs must stay behind bars without bond, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The judge ruled Jacobs is a flight risk.

Jacobs was arrested on Aug. 1, according to jail records.

The 15-year-old daughter reportedly weighed less than 60 pounds and had bruises all over her body, police said.

Gwinnett Police spokesman Cpl. Ed Ritter said at the time of the arrest that the room in which the girl was kept “reeked of feces and urine.”

A Gwinnett County detective testified in Thursday’s hearing that the room was about the size of a cubicle and had a small exercise mat on the floor. He said the girl’s clothes were covered in urine and feces.

Detective Brian Dorminy also testified that a heavy dumbbell hand weight was propped up against the door to the room to keep it closed.

One of the girl’s three sisters (ages 9, 11, and 13) told police, “That’s how we keep her in the room,” Dorminy said, according to a Gwinnett Daily Post report on the hearing. Dorminy said the girl weighed 55 pounds when she was taken to the hospital. The AJC reported the the 15-year-old was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite by paramedics.

Each of the sisters told police the 15-year-old was kept in a closet in the basement bedroom of the oldest sister (the 13-year-old) because she was violent to them.

The mother reportedly told police that the girl’s bruises came from fighting with her siblings, and her malnourishment was because she didn’t eat regularly.

Jacobs’ lawyer, Giles Sexton, told the court she reached out to get help for the girl “and when the problem got out of control she got 911 involved,” according to the Gwinnett Post.

The AJC reported the woman told the 911 dispatcher he was calling on the advice of the girl’s psychiatrist.

The girl and her three sisters (all younger) are in state custody.

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(Photo: Jade Marie Anne Jacobs. Credit: Gwinnett County jail)