CPS twice stepped in to help children allegedly killed by mom

Sheborah Latrice Thomas, 30, is charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of her two children, ages 7 and 5, about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12, 2016 at 3011 Tierwester in southeast Houston. (Houston Police Department) less Sheborah Latrice Thomas, 30, is charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of her two children, ages 7 and 5, about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12, 2016 at 3011 Tierwester in southeast Houston. (Houston ... more Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close CPS twice stepped in to help children allegedly killed by mom 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

Just three days before Christmas in 2012, 2-year-old Kayiana Thomas was wandering the streets of Houston with a homeless man who was intoxicated and mentally ill.

She was cold and had wet herself, and her mother was nowhere to be found, according to court records.

It was the second time in two years that Child Protective Services had stepped in to protect Kayiana and her older brother, Araylon, from a life of drugs and instability that social workers feared put the children at risk.

But the help didn't last. On Friday, with the children back in her care, their mother, Sheborah Thomas, systematically drowned them in a bathtub and stuffed their bodies under a neighbor's house, then later told an acquaintance she had killed them, according to prosecutors.

A confidential court document obtained by the Chronicle paints a troubling picture of the life the children faced in the years leading up to their deaths, including the bout of homelessness in 2012.

Twice the family was investigated for child neglect, and at least once custody was taken away from the mother, according to the sworn statement by a CPS investigator.

And police showed up five times in just the past four months - including the day before the children died - to the home where Thomas and her children lived in the 3000 block of Tierwester.

Mom 'comes and goes'

A passer-by alerted authorities on Dec. 22, 2012 after spotting little Kayiana sitting on top of the homeless man, shaking him. Emergency responders rushed her to Texas Children's Hospital and the man to Ben Taub Hospital for psychiatric treatment, according to the investigator's report.

Kayiana appeared healthy to hospital workers, aside from a healing wound on her stomach from having a cyst drained the previous month. She was discharged from the hospital that day and taken to the CPS office.

The man, who experienced hallucinations and admitted using PCP, gave police the mother's name and said they both were homeless. The mother, he said, "comes and goes." He said they had been on the streets for about six days when she left the child with him.

Contacts on his cellphone led to Thomas' mother, who told the investigator she had not spoken with her daughter in several weeks. The investigator located an address where Thomas received government benefits for herself and her three children, but no one answered the door. Another address listed for Thomas had been vacant for months.

CPS decided to hand the child over to the grandmother. By the next day, when she came to pick up the child, the grandmother said she had since heard from her daughter, who was living in a homeless shelter in northeast Houston with Araylon, then 4. An older son from a previous relationship, who was 8, was with his father.

Thomas admitted to the investigator that she had used marijuana and PCP, and said she left her daughter at the bus stop with the homeless man after catching a ride with someone else when the buses stopped running.

Kayiana's father could not be found.

Emergency temporary conservatorship was granted to the grandmother for both children.

"Miss Thorn (Thomas) does not have a stable home environment and her drug usage prevents her from properly caring for her children," the investigator wrote.

The report also refers to a 2010 CPS investigation, when Sheborah and Danny Ray Thomas were accused of putting all three children at risk with "illegal drug activities." The couple was investigated for neglectful supervision and exposing the children to drug use, which created "an unprotected environment that may compromise their safety," according to the report.

The children's mother passed a drug test, while the father tested positive for THC, a component in marijuana. It appears from the court document that the children were allowed to remain with her because the father no longer lived in the home.

Weapons disturbance

It is unclear when Thomas regained custody of the children after the 2012 incident, but the family's troubles continued this year.

CPS has declined to comment about the case, except to say they have had involvement with the family.

Since early April, when a landlord and neighbors said Thomas started renting the house in the Third Ward, police visited three times for family disturbances, two of which involved a weapon. They responded two other times for child custody situations, one of which coincided with one of the family disturbances.

Police returned again on Thursday, the day before the children were killed. Thomas accused a woman she knew of threatening to harm her on Facebook, and a police report was filed.

None of the police calls was generated in response to abuse or neglect allegations made to Child Protective Services, said Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva.

By then, Danny Ray Thomas was in state prison for possession of PCP. He had already served numerous jail and prison sentences for a litany of charges, including burglary, theft, family violence, trespassing and drug possession.

The final police call came Sunday, when an acquaintance flagged police to tell them Thomas had confessed to killing her children. She was taken into police custody that morning and charged later in the day.

On Monday, prosecutors said Thomas had forced Kayiana and Araylon's heads underwater as they struggled against her. She hid their bodies under a neighbor's house.

Court records show Thomas, 30, has a minor criminal record, including three misdemeanor theft convictions and failure to identify herself to a peace officer.

She is expected to appear in court Wednesday.

Rebecca Elliott contributed to this report.