Aunt due in court in malnourished teen case
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A woman charged in a horrifying case of abuse and neglect is due in court Tuesday.
Investigators charged Crystal Sells after they learned Sells’ father, Steve Sells locked his disabled granddaughter in a room for more than a year.
That teen was later found by police in the home weighing less than 40 pounds and clinging to life in December 2014.
Crystal Sells goes in front of a judge for a pretrial hearing on Tuesday. Charges include neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury and criminal confinement.
Investigators said Sells’ niece, a young disabled girl was locked in a room, forced to urinate in a bucket and defecate on herself while her grandfather Steve and another woman collected government assistance checks meant for her care.
The case has been moved along several times over the past year. A jury trial has been canceled three times since August of 2015.
The jury trial is set for July 12. Crystal will be the only one to go to a jury trial from the case. Her grandfather and the other woman charged plead guilty to charges against them.
