Parents of a malnourished and emaciated boy kept him in a cage, scratched him with a gardening tool and put cigarettes out on him, Odessa Police Department Cpl. Keith Almonte said during an evidentiary hearing Tuesday in Judge John Smith’s 161st District Court.

Almonte’s testimony, along with a video interview with James Carroll at the Ector County Sheriff’s Department, were challenged Tuesday by his defense lawyers, who questioned their admissibility in trial. After hearing arguments, Smith ruled both the video and Almonte’s testimony could be used. Carroll’s trial is currently scheduled to start Feb. 29.

On Feb. 1, Tonya Carroll pleaded guilty to all three charges and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland told the Odessa American at the time she had “deserved every minute of it.”

Carroll is charged with one count of first-degree felony injury to a child, one count of third-degree injury to a child and one first-degree felony count of injury to a child by omission. If convicted by a jury, Carroll faces between five to 99 years or life in prison on each of the first-degree felony charges.

Previously, Carroll’s defense attorney David Rogers said Carroll is eligible for probation because he does not have a criminal history.

The investigation started on Dec. 13, 2013, after a clerk at Ross Dress for Less, 3887 E. 42nd St., called 9-1-1 about a woman threatening her child in the store. The clerk reported she noticed a “little boy that looked real sick,” and decided to follow the family after she reported seeing injuries on the boy’s face.

Almonte testified he was originally called out to the store, but started heading west on East 42nd Street after he had been told by dispatch the vehicle he was looking for was westbound.

The vehicle in question, Almonte said, was found in a McDonald’s parking lot with James Carroll and his wife, Tonya Carroll, helping a family member. After charging both James and Tonya Carroll on theft charges, Almonte testified he noticed a bruise on the right side of the male child’s face that went from the right-side of his forehead down to his cheek.

The boy was also dressed in a “ragged jacket and jeans” while the two female children were in nicer clothing, Almonte said.

The children, accompanied by their uncle, were taken to the Odessa Police Department, where Almonte testified he had to carry the male child inside because he could not walk. While inside, Almonte said he began taking pictures of the child before having him taken to Medical Center Hospital.

“It looked like his skin was on bones,” Almonte testified about how the boy looked after removing his jacket.

At the hospital, Almonte said another officer went and got the child Whataburger while he was going through the emergency room. After making a comment that he could not remember the last time he “ate so good,” Almonte asked if the boy had eaten over the holidays.

The boy, Almonte said, had to stay in a cage while his family ate Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Sometimes, Almonte continued, the family would give the boy scraps, but he mostly ate sandwiches and water.

“But only after he cleaned his cage,” Almonte testified on what the child told him.

Almonte also said the child had told him the family was instructed by Tonya Carroll to scratch him with a three-pronged gardening tool and to put cigarettes out on his body. Almonte continued the family was told if the family members did not harm the boy, she would cut the boy’s fingers off.

Smith approved the testimony, despite objections from the defense it was hearsay.

The child was eventually taken to Medical Center Hospital where, according to court documents, the boy was found to be emaciated and malnourished with bruising and scrapes over both of his legs, back and his genitals.

A search warrant served the next day at the Carrolls’ residence in the 19000 block of South Highway 385 had officials reporting they found a broken back scratcher wrapped in pink tape, a tan wooden back scratcher, a 2”x4”x20” wooden board, a 5-foot electrical cord with a male plug on one end and a small light socket on the opposite end, a 20-gauge shotgun and a white colored plastic rod about 28” long with a diameter of a quarter inch.

Both were later charged in connection with the child’s injuries.

Smith had also approved an interview James Carroll gave at the Ector County Detention Center on Dec. 18, 2013, in which he talks with sheriff’s deputy Randy Dominguez about the reported abuse.

However, Rogers and Raymond Fivecoat argued the video should not be allowed because James Carroll’s Miranda Warnings were not read on screen of the video, but before and only briefly mentioned in the video.

However, Dominguez testified he had went over the one-page sheet line-by-line with James Carroll “a minute or two” before the video was recorded. Smith allowed the video, but said he did so with “great reservations.”

Ector County Assistant District Attorneys Melissa Williams and Bill Prasher will prosecute the case.