A Texas woman will spend nearly three decades in prison for starving, beating, and locking her five-year-old stepson in a filthy closet beneath a staircase where he wore only a diaper.
Tammi Bleimeyer, 37, was found guilty Friday of felony injury to a child for endangering the life of stepson Jordan Bleimeyer. Late Monday, Harris County District Attorney spokesman Dane Schiller announced the jury sentenced her to serve 28 years in prison.
In 2014, the five-year-old was found by his then-16-year-0ld stepbrother in the family’s Spring home. The teen alerted Harris County deputies about the purported abuse. He told police the five-year-old was forced to live in unsanitary conditions in the closet with no food. Reportedly, doctors later stated the child’s level of malnutrition was comparable to that of a Holocaust survivor. Jordan only weighed 29 pounds when rescued by authorities.
Prosecutors said the boy survived on slices of bread which were taken away from him if he did not eat them fast enough, according to the Houston Chronicle. The stepbrother also told deputies he believed a Taser was used on the child and that the youngster’s head was slammed into a wall.
In March 2014, police attempted to locate the child in the family’s residence but the stepmother and husband Bradley Bleimeyer, the boy’s biological father, did not cooperate. In a subsequent home welfare check, officers found the small room under the stairs which contained a soiled mattress. However, Tammi Bleimeyer already fled with the child. Detectives soon found her and Jordan after tracking her cell phone records to a nearby Humble motel. Police said the boy’s body was covered in cuts and bruises. They rushed him to a local hospital. Court documents revealed the child may have been days away from death’s door when local law enforcement found him.
Deputies arrested Bleimeyer and charged her with felony child endangerment. A year later, they added injury to a child to her charges. Husband Bradley was also charged with injury to a child. In 2016, he pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for 15 years.
During the 10-day trial, two of Bleimeyer’s biological children testified. After the verdict was read, one of her sons said: “It is no mystery why we’re all here. You made a big mistake and, ultimately, have to face the consequences.” He asked her how she could put her children, the “people who should be your pride and joy,” through “this.” He stated: “You caused me feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, and emptiness. I can’t say that I’ll ever be the same emotionally because of this.”
Following Bleimeyer’s sentencing, Mark Herman, Harris County Constable, Precinct 4, thanked investigators who “put this case together and stayed the course over the past three years” in what he described as “one of the most horrific child abuse cases.” Herman congratulated the Office of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg for successfully prosecuting Bleimeyer. “Justice has been served!” he wrote on his Facebook page. The constable also posted images of the battered, bruised, and starved diaper-clad Jordan from 2014.
Today, a nine-year-old Jordan lives with his biological mother and continues to “recover with rehabilitation and proper food diet” from the harrowing experience, according to Herman.
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