A Gary woman is facing attempted murder and neglect charges after she kicked one daughter out of the car at a gas station, then choked another one when they got home.
Precious Jones, 43, was charged Tuesday with over a dozen felonies. She is in custody, held on a $13,000 cash bond.
Gary Police responded at 9:49 p.m. April 20 to the 900 block of East 43rd Place for a welfare check.
A neighbor said Jones’ 13-year-old daughter ran to her house for help.
They were at a gas station on Broadway Avenue around 9:15 p.m. when Jones asked the girl to go inside to buy gas. Her mother was drunk, she said. The girl refused because she wasn’t dressed properly. Jones kicked her out and made her walk home.
“Get out of the car,” she said. “Now walk home.”
When she got back, she heard her younger sister, 10, crying and running from her home, figuring Jones probably hurt her again.
Cops knocked on Jones’ door. No one answered.
Eventually, Jones got “argumentative” with police and said she didn’t realize her 10-year-old was gone. A Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy later found the child two blocks away more than an hour later. The child told police that a furious Jones choked her after they got home without her 13-year-old sister. She had bruising on her neck.
“I have to kill you,” Jones said to the girl, according to court records.
Earlier, Jones wouldn’t answer the police officers’ questions and referred them to her other 11-year-old daughter on where the 10-year-old could be. Jones claimed the 13-year-old ran away at the gas station.
Police called the Indiana Department of Child Services, who took custody of six of her seven children, while the 10-year-old girl went to the hospital.
Jones agreed to a breathalyzer, but only put her lips on it, and didn’t blow into it. It still appeared to read that she was intoxicated, court records show. She asked to speak with a lawyer.
Jones is charged with attempted murder, two counts of domestic battery, one count of criminal confinement, eight counts of neglect of a dependent and one count of attempted strangulation.
