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Two women face child abuse charges

Two defendants facing multiple felony counts of child abuse will be tried in Ninth Judicial District Court and remain in custody until trial.

Preliminary hearings Friday that included video clips depicting acts that led to felony allegations against both defendants, Jamye Kushman, 37, and Jamie Sena, 29, of Texico, resulted in their cases being bound over for trial in district court and both remaining incarcerated at the Curry County Adult Detention Center until their trial on more than 20 felony counts of child abuse.

All of the charges of child abuse not resulting in death or great bodily harm filed against both are third-degree penalties, which could bring three years in prison, a fine as high as $5,000 and a complete program of professional counseling at the offender's expense. Both were also charged with conspiracy to commit child abuse, a fourth-degree felony, punishable by 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Ninth Judicial District Attorney Brian Stover presented the same videos in both cases for the prosecution, including the video clips, to District Judge Benjamin Cross in Sena's case and District Judge Drew Tatum in Kushman's case.

The videos show actions of both defendants, who were living together in Texico, involving an 11-year-old boy, a foster child under Kushman's care.

The videos, all shot in July from a security camera attached to a bedroom ceiling, show multiple incidents recorded in early July in which the boy's left ankle is fastened by padlock to a chain that is fastened to his top bunk. In all the videos, the boy is on an old, cracked mattress with no sheets, pillow or blankets while other beds in what was called the children's bedroom were outfitted with sheets, pillows and blankets. Videos showed Sena, Kushman or other household members attaching the padlock and chain to the boy's ankle.

A series of videos taken within a 24-hour period show the child vomiting on the mattress in the early morning hours. Later, an adult enters the room and awakens other children in the room but ignoring the mess on the boy's mattress. A video from later in the day shows Kushman scolding the boy, then jamming his head into the mess. In another video, Kushman asks the boy, "What did you eat that was red?" Nearly 24 hours later videos showed the vomit had not been cleaned from the mattress.

In another video clip, Kushman is shown slapping the boy three times while scolding him as he lies crying on the mattress.

In another video clip, the boy says he has not eaten in two days.

Sgt. Gerardo Hernandez, criminal investigator with the New Mexico State Police, narrated the videos as Stover projected them onto a screen. Hernandez has training in taking data from media like the memory cards used in video cameras, he told the court

Under questioning from her attorney, Frank Rio of Clovis, Kushman said she had been providing foster care to the child for seven years.

The boy, she said, has disorders that include oppositional/defiant disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome and serious learning disabilities. She also said he has tendencies toward running away and has been known to take out windows to escape a locked house. In addition, she said, he frequently gorges on food until he throws up frequently, which is why she occasionally deprives him of food.

She said the dilapidated mattress the boy was seen using in the videos was temporary while the bedroom was being remodeled. Clearly visible in the videos, beds of other children in the bedroom included sheets, pillows and blankets.

Stover challenged Kushman's account by replaying the video in which Kushman shoved the boy's head into the mess on the bed and recalled the video in which she slapped the child and asking if this is what she meant by caring for the boy.

He withdrew the question, however.

Rio said in his final statement that Kushman's methods might be questionable, but her intentions were to look out for the boy's welfare.

Rio also asked that videos that depicted others besides Kushman attaching the padlock on the boy's ankle be excluded.

He also asked that she be released on bond because of her lack of criminal record before the July arrest.

Stover also presented as evidence images taken from Kushman's cell phone that show the boy and another girl living in the house sitting in a bathtub and eating spaghetti.

At Sena's hearing, after Stover and Hernandez presented the same vidoes, Sena's defense attorney Blake Dugger asked that videos showing persons other than Sena padlocking the boy to the bed be stricken from Sena's case.

The judges both agreed with Stover that criteria for keeping a defendant incarcerated until trial were met for both Sena and Kushman. Stover said the violence and seriousness of the allegations against them justified keeping both in custody. Stover also wondered whether either would obey orders not to contact witnesses, especially children. The defense attorneys argued their clients did not have criminal records before the investigation at their home began on July 22.

After the hearings. Stover told The News that other children who had been living in Kushman's home in Texico when CYFD inspectors called in law enforcement to search the home on Aug. 1, are likely to testify at the trial.

An investigation into the home began July 22, records show. Among a number of things observed was a locked and chained gate inside the door to the home in the 200 block of Curry Road 8.5, plus an unflushed toilet full of urine and feces.

The children were taken to state Children, Youth and Family offices in Clovis and were questioned. That's where state personnel heard more stories about the children going hungry and how they learned to steal food, the affidavit showed.

Videos of the children in various negative conditions were discovered on cell phones and security cameras in the home.

Court documents show that when police asked Sena how she felt about some of the children being chained to the wall. She told investigators she "felt it was wrong but understood why it was done so they couldn't get out."