Paulsboro mother told relative she beat 9-year-old daughter before her death, prosecutors say

In the hours before 9-year-old Maya Thomas died in her family’s home in Paulsboro, her mother told a relative that she and her husband had beaten the girl until she lost consciousness, then put her to bed, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday. An hour later, the couple found her still unconscious and gurgling, and called 911.

But when India Miller called for help in the early hours of Oct. 13, she told a dispatcher that her daughter had returned home battered and bruised after being struck by a car while walking the family dog, the prosecutor said.

The claim launched an investigation that would uncover evidence of prolonged abuse that culminated in Maya’s death, the details of which were revealed during a detention hearing Tuesday for Miller, 27, who is charged with first-degree murder and related crimes in her daughter’s homicide.

After hearing the allegations Tuesday morning, Gloucester County Superior Court Judge Niki Arbittier ordered Miller, 27, held in jail without bail until her case is resolved.

Miller’s husband, Sean Scott, 45, is also charged with first-degree murder and related crimes in Maya’s death. Last Thursday, he waived his right to a detention hearing and agreed to remain incarcerated while the case proceeds.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the question of Miller’s role in her daughter’s death gave way to two different portraits of the mother: one of an abusive parent who helped beat Maya to death after allowing months of abuse, and another of a victim of her husband’s violence, as her defense attorney contended.

Gloucester County prosecutor Elizabeth Tornese said medical findings and relatives’ accounts proved that Maya had endured prolonged cruelty and that Miller had failed to protect her. Her defense attorney, Justin Moore, argued that Miller had endured repeated violence at Scott’s hands and had tried to save her daughter’s life before police arrived.

When Paulsboro police responded to the couple’s Swedesboro Avenue home earlier this month, their body-camera footage showed Maya lying limp on her bed, not breathing, with a distended stomach and a swollen face, Tornese said.

At Cooper University Hospital, where Maya was taken for emergency treatment, doctors found injuries that prosecutors said could not have been caused by a vehicle: Maya suffered a brain injury due to lack of oxygen and cardiac arrest, Tornese said. Doctors also found fractured ribs, severe facial injuries, including damage that had stripped away skin across an entire eyelid, and multiple injuries to her lower body.

An autopsy, which Tornese said took more than five hours to complete, revealed several injuries in various stages of healing, evidence that prosecutors said pointed to abuse over time.

As detectives investigated, they interviewed relatives who described earlier episodes of violence. One relative told investigators that Miller had acknowledged that she and Scott had hit Maya on the night she died, Tornese said. Another family member, who lived out of state, said he had witnessed the couple verbally and physically abusing Maya during a visit that summer to their Paulsboro home. And Miller’s mother told authorities she had previously taken custody of Maya after witnessing Miller physically abuse her, the prosecutor said.

“This was not an isolated incident of abuse,” Tornese said.

She urged Arbittier to keep Miller detained, arguing that she posed a danger to the community and was a flight risk. Miller has no family in New Jersey, Tornese said, and recently discussed moving out of state with Scott.

Moore offered a different picture of Miller’s circumstances, saying investigators’ reports contained “strong evidence” that Scott had repeatedly abused Miller. A family member told detectives that he had seen Scott beat her, Moore said. A friend described Miller arriving at her home unannounced, barefoot, he said, after walking through the snow to escape Scott.

The allegations of Scott’s abuse appear in supplemental investigative reports, Moore said. On Tuesday, spokespeople for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the court denied The Inquirer’s requests for the reports, saying they were not public records.

Moore acknowledged that Miller may have given police false information. But he argued that she was either with Scott or speaking with him by phone when she made statements to investigators, limiting her ability to speak freely about what had happened.

Scott was “violent and irate” when officers arrived at the house, Moore said. Under those circumstances, he contended, Miller’s failure to be “truthful and forthright” with police was not surprising.

Moore also said Miller had followed a dispatcher’s instructions to perform CPR on Maya, continuing chest compressions until officers arrived in an effort to revive her.

Miller, who is eight months pregnant, also has a 4-year-old child who was removed from the home and placed in emergency care by the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, according to the department. The agency is investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving Maya, according to a spokesperson. Maya, authorities have said, was homeschooled.

Moore argued that the department’s investigation and removal of the younger child gave Miller a strong incentive to remain in New Jersey and comply with court orders: She would want to regain custody of the child, he said. He asked Arbittier to consider releasing Miller to home detention, potentially with electronic monitoring and a strict order prohibiting contact with Scott.

After nearly an hour of arguments, Arbittier ruled that Miller would remain in jail, citing the seriousness of the allegations and the danger she posed.

In rendering her order, the judge acknowledged Moore’s claims that Miller had been abused by Scott. But she said Miller had opportunities to seek help for Maya and had instead given police a story that diverted them from what prosecutors believe happened.

“Even if the defendant did not have the strength to get help for herself, she reported to police an entirely different version of what happened to her own child,” Arbittier said.

The judge also cited body-camera footage that prosecutors said showed Miller displaying little emotion as Maya lay unresponsive. Arbittier said Miller had shown similarly little emotion during the hearing as she recounted the events surrounding her daughter’s death.

“That is evident, quite frankly, in Ms. Miller’s appearance before me today,” the judge said. “In recounting of these horrific events, she has displayed, again, no emotion with regard to her child.”

“She is a danger to her small children, because either she was involved in this abuse or allowed it to happen without seeking help and, in fact, deflecting police from what actually happened,” Arbittier said.