Aurora – An Arapahoe County jury unanimously ruled Wednesday night to not allow the family of missing Aaronè Thompson to be reunited.
Aaron Thompson and Shelley Lowe were fighting to regain custody of the eight other children who were in their care.
A jury took about seven hours to rule that they were negligent parents and to rescind their parental rights.
The Department of Human Services removed the children and placed them in foster care after police alleged 6-year-old Aaroné Thompson, who was reported missing on Nov. 14, was killed.
Thompson and Lowe wanted the county to reinstate their parental rights and asked for a jury to hear the case. The trial began April 10 in Judge Gerald Rafferty’s courtroom and was scheduled to last two weeks.
The jury apparently began deliberating at noon Wednesday and reached a decision by 7 p.m.
Thompson and Lowe were in the courtroom to receive the news. They emerged from the courthouse quiet and under orders not to talk to the press by Thompson’s attorney, Terraine Bailey, who said a gag order remains on the case.
The case was not public because it involves juveniles in a custody case.
Arapahoe County attorneys prosecuted the matter, calling witnesses that included county caseworkers and Aurora detectives. It’s unknown whether the defense called any witnesses.
Records show that Inmate Eric Williams, Lowe’s former common law husband and a father of two of the children, was briefly transferred from a state prison to the county jail last week. It’s also unknown whether he testified.
But Williams was one of the first witnesses for police that led them to believe Aaroné had been killed and that Lowe and Thompson were persons of interest.
Documents obtained by The Denver Post said that Williams told police on Nov. 15 that Lowe had talked to him about Aaroné’s dissappearance, saying that “something happened” and Aaroné was bleeding in a bathtub before she stopped breathing and died.
Williams told police that Lowe told him that Thompson buried Aaroné in a field.
That information led police to determine that Thompson’s report that Aaroné had run away was false and a homicide investigation began.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
