EAST FELICIANA — A judge dismissed charges against the parents of an East Feliciana Parish woman who, according to prosecutors, died after years of sitting on a couch in feces and maggots.
Clay and Sheila Fletcher were charged with second-degree murder in May 2022 in the death of their daughter, 36-year-old Lacey Ellen Fletcher.
Sheila & Clay Fletcher turned themselves into the East Feliciana Parish Prison soon after the indictments. Their bond was set at $300,000 each. They both bonded out shortly after.
The judge accepted a motion to quash the charges. The reason was because of incorrect information in the charging affidavits.
To squash would be to reject or void, especially by a legal procedure. A motion to quash refers to a specific type of request in which one court is asked to render the decision made by another lower court as invalid. An example of a motion to quash would be if a party experienced improper service of process. They may decide to file a motion to quash.
District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla said he plans to re-indict the parents before a grand jury on June 19, the date initially scheduled as the first day of their trial.
Steven Moore, one of the Fletchers’ attorneys, filed the motion to quash.
Fletcher’s body was found on Jan. 3, 2022, at her parents’ home in Slaughter in East Feliciana Parish on Tom Dr. Her body was covered in her waste, had bed sores down to her bones, maggots crawling over her remains and she weighed only 96 pounds at the time of her death.
She had also been exposed to Covid-19 and had multiple infections. Officials said she may have been on the couch since 2010.
East Feliciana Parish Coroner at that time, DeWitt Bickham, said her death was a homicide from “severe chronic neglect.”
Officials said Fletcher was autistic & became mentally incapacitated at some point in her life. Her parents are accused of leaving her on the couch for years. She would not get up to eat or use the bathroom.
UWK did reach out to Moore for comment, who said they were not ready to speak at this time.
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