Inset, top to bottom: Moses Lee Bass and Destiny Leeann Randle (Jackson County Jail). Background: The building where a toddler died after falling from an eighth-story window (KSHB).
A 30-year-old father and a 28-year-old mother in Missouri have been arrested in the death of their 3-year-old son, who died after falling out the window of their eighth-floor apartment building earlier this week. Moses Lee Bass and Destiny Leeann Randle were taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count each of first-degree felony endangering the welfare of a child, authorities announced.
According to court documents, officers with the Independence, Missouri Police Department responded on Monday at 10:06 a.m. to a call regarding a juvenile needing medical assistance at the Independence Towers in the 700 block of N. Jennings Road. The person who called 911 told the dispatcher that an infant appeared to have “fallen from above her apartment, on the fourth floor, to the ground below.”
Once there, first responders found the child and began performing lifesaving measures. The boy was naked, with a diaper lying nearby and several children’s toys scattered on the pavement.
The victim was taken to a hospital, where he died shortly after noon.
Police contacted Bass, who said he had left the apartment to walk the dog at about 10 a.m. and was speaking to the building manager when he saw emergency medical personnel and firetrucks. When he saw that they were treating a child, he called Randle, who was upstairs with the other three children and told her to check on them.
When Randle went into the children’s room and saw “the window open and unsecured and [the victim] was missing,” prosecutors wrote.
“Randle stated she knew the window in the children’s room had a rip in the screen, as well as not being able to properly lock. She stated she and I1 usually secure the window with a blue pole that was supposed to be in the windowsill at the time,” the criminal complaint says. “Randle reported that she has attempted several times to get building management to fix the window and stated the window has been in that condition since they moved in approximately 1 year ago in June of 2023.”
The parents later explained that the blue pole would be placed in the window track so it could not slide open.
Randle allegedly told police that one of the other three children admitted to opening the window while they were in the room unattended.
Authorities said the home’s condition was deplorable, with “trash piled up everywhere.”
“All the beds in the children’s rooms were covered in old dirt and did not have any sheets on them,” the complaint states. “Old, used diapers were also found in the children’s room with no receptacle to hold them. The children’s room specifically smelled of urine. There was a child safety doorknob cover on the doorknob on the inside of the room the children sleep in.”
The witness who called 911 told police that she “consistently” sees children’s toys fall past her window from above that were “within the trajectory of the apartment where [the victim] fell.” She said the toys falling past her window had been happening “frequently” for about eight months.
One of the other children in the home, who had visible marks on his arms and legs, told investigators that Randle and Bass had recently “hurt him with an object they call Mr. Blacky.” He then drew authorities a picture of a “black whip or belt-like object.”
While executing a search warrant on the home, Bass allegedly told police that “Mr. Blacky” was a belt, while Randle allegedly said they used it to “whoop the kids.”
In police interviews, the parents said they knew their kids could get out of the window since about December 2023, police said. They also confirmed that neighbors and building management had told them several times that the kids were throwing toys out of the window.
Randle allegedly stated that while she and Bass had become “complacent” of late, she had been “concerned from day one that one of her children would fall out the window.”
Randle and Bas are being held in Jackson County Jail on bond of $100,000. They made their first court appearance Wednesday afternoon.
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