POMONA (CNS) - A criminal charge could be filed today against the mother of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found partially inside a large duffel bag near an equestrian trail in the Hacienda Heights area.
Taquesta Graham, 28, was extradited to California last Thursday and was initially being held without bail for an unrelated parole violation. But on Monday, she was booked on suspicion of murder for her daughter's death, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials said.
A 38-year-old man believed to be Graham's boyfriend, Emiel Lamar Hunt, was arrested early March 9 and charged with the murder of the girl, identified by the county coroner's office as Trinity Love Jones.
Trinity's body was found about 10 a.m. March 5 at the bottom of an embankment close to Colima Road and the 3400 block of Hacienda Boulevard, near the His Lai Buddhist Temple. The body, which was found by county workers clearing some brush, was partially inside a black roll-away-type duffel, with her head and upper body protruding from the partially zipped bag, authorities said.
Hunt, who was arrested after being found sleeping in his black Nissan Armada SUV in a lot near San Diego International Airport, is due to be arraigned in a Pomona courtroom on April 16. He remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail.
Sheriff's officials said Monday they were preparing to present their investigation of Graham to the District Attorney's Office, and a murder charge is expected to be filed on Wednesday, followed by arraignment in Pomona.
The complaint against Hunt alleges he has a 2005 conviction for child abuse from San Diego County. He could face up to 50 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney's Office.
As sheriff's homicide detectives investigated the case, Hunt and Graham were stopped in Hunt's SUV about 6 a.m. March 8 at a border patrol checkpoint in Hudspeth County, Texas, officials said.
“Graham was arrested for an unrelated warrant and Hunt was released,” according to a sheriff's department statement that said investigators in Los Angeles County were unaware of the arrest.
After Graham was arrested, Hunt began driving back to California, officials said. Investigators have not revealed how they learned he was in San Diego.
Graham, Hunt and Trinity moved from a family member's home in Long Beach in May and during the past 10 months their extended family had limited contact with them, according to the sheriff's department.
They were homeless just prior to the girl's death and were living in a Santa Fe Springs motel or in their vehicle, officials said.
Investigators announced earlier that they believed Trinity's body had been left along the equestrian trail within 48 hours of being found, but since then have come to believe she had been left at the scene during the afternoon of March 1, according to the sheriff's department.
“There were no open or active Department of Children and Family Services cases involving Trinity,” officials said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn has said there are “several red flags in Trinity's life that need to be followed up on” and she vowed to “get to the bottom of what could have been done, if anything, to prevent her death and the suffering she undoubtedly endured.”
The coroner's office has ruled Trinity's death a homicide, but officials have not said how the girl died and the case is on a security hold.