A homeless man was arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old Kansas girl, who neighbors say had been kicked out of her dilapidated house by her own mother.
Mickel Wayne Cherry, 25, was charged Thursday with counts of first-degree murder and rape after little Zoey Felix died – despite firefighters’ efforts to save her life in a gas station parking lot.
Police say Cherry ‘knew the girl’ and neighbors claimed that at one point Cherry lived with Zoey, her father and her sister in the same house.
Those same neighbors are speaking out about her mother, Holly Jo Felix, 36, who has a criminal record and allegedly kicked her daughters and husband out two weeks earlier, forcing them to live at a campsite.
‘Zoey did not deserve to be in anybody’s woods,’ neighbor Sharon Williams said. ‘This is her home right here. She has one, two, three, four, five people that would do anything for her.’
A 25-year-old homeless man was charged Thursday in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old Kansas girl who neighbors say had been kicked out of her dilapidated house by her own mother
Mickel Wayne Cherry was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree murder in the commission of a felony and one count of raping a victim under the age of 14 for killing Zoey Felix, who died despite firefighters’ efforts to save her life in a gas station parking lot
Williams told KSNT that surrounding families would often have to feed and clothe the girl and she would often ask them if she could stay with them.
‘Everybody on the block took care of Zoey,’ said Sheryl Tyree. ‘Everybody loved Zoey, except her parents.’
Holly Jo Felix pleaded guilty in 2018 to aggravated battery causing bodily harm with a deadly weapon against a victim who was only referred to as ‘ZF’ with a 2018 birthdate.
She also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence with a child in the vehicle and was on probation at the time of Zoey’s death.
Felix also has previous convictions for possessing stolen property and domestic battery in Nevada, and was at one point barred from having contact with Zoey’s father, Ezepquiel Felix-Guerrero, as well as another victim believed to be Zoey’s half-sister.
Neighbors also claim that the Kansas Department for Children were called multiple times in the weeks leading up to her death after reports of it having no running water and being covered in feces but nothing was done, the Capital-Journal reported.
Topeka police confirmed Thursday that they made three visits to the home in September: One on September 5 for a welfare check following a report that the home had no electricity; and two domestic disturbance calls in the afternoon and evening of September 19, a little more than an hour apart.
Police did not provide details about those two calls.
City spokeswoman Gretchen Spiker said in an email that during the first call, officers confirmed there was no electricity and that they were told the child wasn’t staying there.
Neighbors are speaking out about her mother, Holly Jo Felix, 36, who has a criminal record and allegedly kicked her daughters and husband out two weeks earlier, forcing them to live at a campsite
A home in seen in Topeka, Kan, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. Neighbors said Zoey Felix, a 5-year-old girl, lived at the home before she, her father and another man, 25-year-old Mickel Cherry, moved to a wooded area blocks away
A tent sits in a grove of trees on a wooded lot amid businesses in Topeka, where the family was allegedly living
Police met with the child, saw she was in ‘good spirits’ but still made a report to child welfare and property officials, Spiker said.
The city moved to condemn the house but backed off when the utilities were turned back on. Neighbors said that everyone but the mother had moved out by then.
‘I just reported the neglect that was going on,’ Williams said. ‘She’s always dirty, no food unless some of us fed her, but they didn’t obviously take it serious.’
Cherry was jailed in Topeka on a $2 million bond, and his next court appearance has not yet been determined.
Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay said that a decision about seeking a death sentence won’t be made until after a preliminary hearing to determine whether Cherry stands trial. That is standard in capital cases.
Mark Manna, of the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, said his office would represent Cherry, but that he had no further comment. Cherry´s family didn´t respond to messages.
Authorities have released no details about the cause of Zoey´s death, but former neighbors of the girl and her family believe she, her father and Cherry had lived the past few weeks in a grove of trees on a wooded lot near the gas station, just blocks from the home where her mother lived.
They believed she was carried from the wooded lot to the gas station, but police have not confirmed any of those details.
In this undated photo provided by Shaniqua Bradley, 5-year-old Zoey Felix plays at Bradley’s house in Topeka
Zoey Felix, a 5-year-old girl, is honored with a makeshift memorial of flowers, balloons, signs and toys along a sidewalk
A sign calling for justice sits among toys, balloons and flowers in a makeshift memorial honoring Zoey
Cherry, a homeless man, has been charged with the murder and rape of Felix and could face the death penalty in connection with the girl’s death
Kagay said in a news release that Topeka police rushed to a gas station where fire crews were attempting to save Zoey´s life. She was later pronounced dead. A medical examination at the hospital revealed injuries consistent with sexual assault.
‘I think the investigation into the murder and rape of this 5-year-old girl is fairly complete,’ Kagay told reporters during a brief news conference.
Asked about potentially charging other people, Kagay said, ‘I´m willing to consider any actionable investigations brought to me,’ but when he was asked whether he is aware of any other investigations, he said, ‘I´m not.’
Timothy Phelps, deputy director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections, confirmed that Cherry used to live at the same address as Zoey, but at the time of his arrest, Cherry was homeless.
Cherry has no criminal record in Kansas, but he does have a misdemeanor criminal trespass conviction in Amarillo, Texas.
Cherry was jailed in Topeka on a $2 million bond, and his next court appearance has not yet been determined
Neighbors said they had raised concerns that Zoey’s family home had no electricity and that they called the police and child welfare.
‘She just had a good spirit to her. Honestly, very outgoing, smart. She was curious about everything. She´d ask you a 1,001 questions, and she demanded answers for those too,’ said Shaniqua Bradley, a neighbor.
One tent and a tarp were set up in the woods a few blocks away from the home, in an area about a football field away from the pumps at a Dillons grocery store where fire crews tried to resuscitate Zoey.
Her dad worked at the gas station; a coworker said Wednesday that he was taking time off and the company hasn’t responded to an email from The Associated Press.
A makeshift memorial of flowers, balloons and toys sat nearby.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
