HOUSTON – A man accused of fatally stabbing a woman while her two young children were home made his first court appearance Wednesday.
With his wrists bound in chains, Ronald Deshaun Green, 27, bowed as he listened to the charges brought against him.
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Green is accused of stabbing Cecelia Sanders at least six times in her chest, arms and legs.
"The mother of the complainant found her daughter laying face down, stabbed multiple times, and found the 8-month-old child next to her mother's body," said District Attorney Angela Weltin.
Along with murder, prosecutors added another charge of abandoning and injury to a child. According to police, before Green killed Sanders, he locked her 3-year-old daughter in the closet.
"A dresser had been pushed up against that door preventing her from exiting that closet. The 3-year-old told her grandmother, 'My daddy hit me and put me in the closet,'" Weltin said.
Investigators said Sanders separated from Green and moved out of the apartment in late July to live with her mother.
Prosecutors also said they may add a third charge of sexual assault, depending on the medical examination.
"If we believe that there's was any type of sexual assault that occurred ... if there was, so then we'll look again to see if these case needs to be changed from a murder to a capital murder or if it needs to remain at a murder," Weltin said.
Prosecutors said just hours after the crime, Green contacted family members and asked for money to leave Houston. Officers found him before he was able to get away.
Green's bond was set at $200,000, plus $30,000 for the abandoning and injury to a child.
The next court date is set for Sept. 13.