MEDINA COUNTY, Texas – A San Antonio woman has been indicted by a grand jury in the death of her 7-month-old baby inside an east Medina County home last Christmas.
Elise Adair, 24, was transferred from a state prison to Medina County this month to formally be charged with felony reckless injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, a Medina County sheriff's official confirmed Monday.
Her daughter, Lily Adair (Wade), was found dead on Christmas 2017 after the infant appeared to have gotten her head stuck between the mattress and footboard of an adult bed in a home on County Road 3826, just inside the Medina County line.
Lily remained in the care of Adair despite repeated warnings from the baby's part-time caregivers and despite a Child Protective Services family plan in August 2017 that revealed Adair was a "high risk" recovering methamphetamine addict whose two older children had been previously removed from her care and adopted out to one of their family members.
Adair had been serving a prison sentence for an unrelated Kendall County burglary conviction.
Her bond has been set at $15,000, according to a Medina County official.
It remains unclear why Adair and Lily were at the home at the time of the infant's death.
Lily's father, Earl Wade, pleaded no contest to a child indecency charge in October 2017 in exchange for seven years of probation.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and was told not to have any contact with his biological or stepchildren unless a court approved adult was present, according to court records.
Records show the home on CR 3826 where Lily died is the same residence listed by Wade on the Texas Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry.
In March, days after the KSAT 12 Defenders reported on the circumstances of Lily's death, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Hank Whitman said his agency did not respond properly to warnings that Lily was possibly being neglected.
Dana Henderson, who said she reached out to CPS at least eight times with evidence of possible neglect, said officials with the agency failed to show compassion or to realize how badly Lily needed them to intervene.
"They actually sent me a letter in March to let me know that they were not going to provide services for Lily, even though she had passed in December, which to me was taunting," said Henderson.
A CPS spokeswoman said via email Monday that she was checking to see if the agency was able to release additional information about the case.
An autopsy of Lily released in April confirmed that the infant died of probable positional asphyxia.