HOUSTON (AP) A Texas man was sentenced Thursday to 40 years for charges related to the death of a 4-year-old girl who went missing for several weeks before her remains were found in Arkansas. Maleah Davis was reported missing in May 2019. Derion Vence, the ex-boyfriend of Maleah’s mother, initially told police the Houston girl had been kidnapped by assailants who released him and his 2-year-old son. Police said Vence’s story kept changing and.
May 27, 2021
A guilty plea has been entered in a case that received national media coverage in 2019. Derion Vence pleaded guilty today to tampering with a corpse and injury to a child in death of 4-year-old Maleah Davis. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Vence was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Vence reportedly had a relationship with the girl s mother. Vence, Maleah and her little brother were all reported missing the morning of May 4, 2019. When Vence and Maleah’s brother showed up at a hospital late that night, Maleah was not with them. Her remains were found by the side of a road in Arkansas a month after she disappeared.
Man sentenced to 40 years in prison in death of 4-year-old Houston girl
Derion Vence pleaded guilty to child injury, tampering with corpse
Associated Press
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Derion Vence, who initially reported 4-year-old Maleah Davis missing, was convicted in her death, according to police. (Houston Police Department)
HOUSTON – A Texas man was sentenced Thursday to 40 years for charges related to the death of a 4-year-old girl who was missing for several weeks before her remains were found in Arkansas.
Maleah Davis was reported missing in May 2019. Derion Vence, the ex-boyfriend of Maleah’s mother, initially told police the Houston girl had been kidnapped by assailants who released him and his 2-year-old son.
Stepfather accused of killing 4-year-old Maleah Davis pleads guilty, gets 40 years in prison Nelson Oliveira
A Texas man accused of killing his 4-year-old stepdaughter, stuffing her body in a trash bag and dumping it on a roadside was sentenced to four decades in prison after accepting a plea deal Thursday.
Derion Vence, who was dating the victim’s mother at the time, insisted the child died from an accident even as he accepted responsibility for her death. An autopsy revealed that Maleah Davis died from “homicidal violence” in May 2019, about a month before her remains were found in Arkansas.
The 28-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to intentional injury to a child and tampering with a corpse during a court hearing in Harris County, authorities said. If the case had gone to trial, Vence would have faced up to life in prison.