ATLANTA — A judge has denied bond for the two women charged in 8-year-old Amari Hall's death. More than 2 months ago, she was killed after they initially reported her missing.
Brittany Hall and her partner, Celeste Owens, face a number of charges from felony murder and cruelty to children to making false statements. In court Wednesday, the prosecution revealed Hall was on probation for felony theft and assault when she was arrested for killing her own daughter.
“You are certainly a risk to witnesses and a danger to remaining children that are alive and a risk of flight with no stable residence and no familial support,” Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, Angela Duncan said.
Both women reported Amari as missing from a Homewood Suites in Gwinnett County on Nov. 19. Police told 11Alive they quickly realized their stories didn’t add up.
Then investigators said they found deleted videos from a Nest cam on Owen’s cell phone – depicting both women hitting and kicking the children, leading them to arrest both women for abusing Amari and Brittany’s other children.
Also allegedly on that cell phone, according to investigators, there was information on a U-Haul reservation which police said eventually led investigators to Amari’s body in a wooded area in DeKalb county.
“So they went back the very next morning and located Amari in a sort of shallow grave area in some garbage bags,” Deputy Chief District Attorney, Sabrina Nizam said.
Nizam testified Wednesday that Amari’s official cause of death was listed as battered child syndrome.
“Quite a bit of bruising and markings several fractured ribs in various stages of healing she had an acute laceration to her liver,” Nizam said.
Owens' defense requested bond since she is from the area and the children involved were not hers, while Hall's defense brought up her mental health disorders and need for medication as a reason to release her.
Brittany Hall’s two other children are currently in the custody of DFACs but the agency is allowing them to stay with Hall’s mother.
The DA's office said the next step in this case will be presenting the evidence to a grand jury at the end of the month.