Inset: Joshua Mulvey appearing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on Aug. 20 (WTOL). Background: The home where Mulvey’s girlfriend’s 7-year-old starved to death (Google Maps).
An Ohio mother and her boyfriend are facing multiple felonies for allegedly starving the woman’s 7-year-old son with special needs after he was found dead two years ago, weighing only 19 pounds.
The boyfriend, 28-year-old Joshua Mulvey, was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and one count of third-degree child endangerment in connection with the 2023 death of young Kristopher Snyder, records show.
The boy’s mother, 29-year-old Samantha Hardiman, remains at large after being indicted on two counts of murder, three counts of child endangerment, and one count of involuntary manslaughter.
According to a news release from the Toledo Police Department, officers at about 7:30 p.m. on June 2, 2023, responded to a home in the 1700 block of Freeman Street to a report of a deceased child. Upon arriving at the scene, police said they found “the special needs victim, Kristopher Snyder,” already deceased and immediately opened an investigation into his death.
Kristopher reportedly lived with cerebral palsy.
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“The case appears to be a homicide due to neglect,” the department wrote in the news release.
A subsequent autopsy conducted by the Lucas County Coroner’s Office resulted in a revised cause of death, local CBS affiliate WTOL reported. Per the report, the coroner’s office determined that the manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was “malnutrition and dehydration associated with cerebral palsy, with epilepsy as another significant condition.”
Mulvey appeared in court for a bond hearing on Wednesday afternoon. Lucas County Chief Criminal Prosecutor Jennifer Liptack-Wilson told Common Pleas Judge Joe McNamara that when authorities found the victim, Kristopher was “completely emaciated,” weighing in at just 19 pounds, which is significantly less than the average weight of a healthy 1-year-old boy, the Toledo Blade reported.
The prosecution stated that Mulvey had lived in the home with Kristopher and his mother for about two years, meaning he owed the child a “basic duty to make sure his basic nutritional needs were met.”
Mulvey formally pleaded not guilty to the charges through his court-appointed public defender, Dmitry Tatarko. The lawyer also requested that his client be released from detention on the condition that he wear an ankle monitor.
“I do not think I should be here in the first place, but that’s for another day,” Mulvey told the court, adding, “I will be a part of this process. I need answers myself.”
Tatarko’s request was ultimately denied, as McNamara set Mulvey’s bond at $300,000. He is currently being held in the Lucas County Correctional Center and is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 10, records show.
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Author: Jerry Lambe
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