KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A young victim of extreme abuse, now we are seeing evidence of the trauma the little boy faced and why many believe one more person should be charged in his death.
Adrian Jones died in 2015. A year and a half later, a Kansas lawmaker is working on new legislation to prevent another child like Adrian from falling through the cracks.
It was in December of 2015, FOX 4 headed inside the home tucked away in rural Wyandotte county, where little Adrian Jones lived.
The Jones’ landlord, Jennifer Hoevers, walked us through the home littered with dead mice, syringes and rat poison. We saw the deplorable conditions but never really knew what Adrian faced leading up to his death, until now.
“I was in complete shock.”
Jennifer gained access to an iCloud account belonging to Adrian’s parents, Michael and Heather Jones. In it, she found several hours of surveillance footage in the home.
The file shows videos of gruesome abuse. One shows Adrian standing naked outside in the cold, handcuffed, forced to lick water out of a bowl. Another video shows the little boy forced to stand in dirty pool water and pictures of a nearly unrecognizable Adrian.
“I had to shut the computer off and kind of get it back together for a least a day. Before I could open it up and figure out what to do,” Hoevers said.
But then she found a video that highlighted another adult in the home, his great uncle Willie Flowers — someone Jennifer said was also living in the home and witnessed the abuse.
“Heather did tell me that he assisted in keeping him locked up and after Adrian had died, he helped to dispose of the body.”
“It makes me really angry. I don’t understand how he’s getting off free when he watched it happen for over nine months. He didn’t try to save him or anything.”
State lawmaker Louis Ruiz introduced new legislation this week called “Adrian’s Act.”
It would force all adults living in a home where a child is being abused to report it to police. Jennifer wonders if this legislation would’ve been active sooner, if little Adrian would still be here.
“Hopefully this passes maybe it’ll save more kids.”
Adrian’s step mother Heather was sentenced to life in prison, with a possibility of parole in 25 years.
His father Michael will be sentenced on Monday.
Adrian’s Act should be brought up in the house sometime next week.
