Amber McDaniel, 31, turned herself in to police on July 8 on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and tampering with evidence
The mother of a two-year-old boy has been has been charged in connection with his death after she allowed her son to stay with her boyfriend, despite him telling her he wanted to 'cull' the boy, and had beaten the child in the past.
Little Jason Wilder McDaniel, 2, was found dead on October 11 of 2018 laying on the floor beside his crib at the Texas home of boyfriend James Staley III with blood smeared around his mouth, on the floor and on an adult-sized pillow inside the crib.
Staley is charged with murdering the toddler and is currently on bail.
Now Amber McDaniel, 31, has been charged with child endangerment and evidence tampering, after prosecutors found a series of disturbing text messages between the couple, according to an indictment filed on July 22.
Staley wrote that the two-year-old should be 'culled,' called him racial slurs, expressed a desire to strike the child and admitted to beating him on numerous occasions, according to the indictment.
In one message, Staley said that he 'pushed [Wilder's] face in a dirty diaper and then... pushed his face in the commode.' In another, Staley expressed that he 'wanted to and/or had placed Wilder in a tinderbox,' the indictment states.
Yet, McDaniel continued to bring her son to Staley's home, where his body was ultimately found, despite noticing bruising on the toddler's face after he had been in Staley's care.
While the ultimate cause of Wilder's death was inconclusive, a Dallas County medical examiner reported injuries to the child in his autopsy report that she wrote were consistent with smothering by a pillow, while other injuries 'may have occurred during a struggle.'
The Wichita County District Attorney's office is currently determining whether Staley should receive the death penalty for the murder of the toddler. Staley, who is currently free from jail on $1.2 million in bail bonds, pled 'not guilty.'
McDaniel turned herself in to police on July 8, and was booked at Wichita County Jail, the same facility where Staley had been booked for Wilder's murder.
Incredibly, Wilder's biological father, Robert 'Bubba' McDaniel - who is still married to McDaniel - says he doesn't blame his wife and said that Staley was a master manipulator.
He told KFDX-TV that he'd seen some of the disturbing messages that Staley had sent about their son, but that McDaniel had laughed them off as her boyfriend making a joke.
'[Staley] tried to manipulate her into thinking that it was all just jokes... a lot of the things that I’ve read have an "lol" on them... I can see how the manipulation would make her think its something different.'
'There were times that I was shocked that she kind of laughed about [the
