Woman charged months after Salem 6-year-old’s death
A woman has been charged with manslaughter in the January death of a six-year-old boy, according to court documents.
Authorities have provided little information about the death of Titus Davenport, and court records don’t make clear how the boy died.
A Marion County grand jury on June 2 indicted Cierra Wiedner, 25, on a charge of first-degree manslaughter.
The charge alleges Wiedner killed her domestic partner’s son recklessly and “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life,” according to the indictment.
Wiedner and her domestic partner, Robby-Joe A. Davenport, 29, were initially arrested following the death on charges of first-degree criminal mistreatment before being released from Marion County Jail days later.
The Salem Police Department at the time announced the incident as a “suspicious death.”
The indictment requested a warrant for Wiedner to be arrested and jailed without bail. She was not listed on the Marion County Jail roster as of Monday, June 5.
The police agency said in a news release that emergency crews responded at 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 20, to a home on a call “of a child reported to be unresponsive.”
Firefighters, police and medics were part of the response, police said. The home is in the 600 block of Southeast 18th Street and north of Southeast Mission Street.
The boy was taken to Salem Hospital where he died.
Police at the time did not identify the child or release information on the circumstances at the home when medics arrived.
An autopsy to determine the cause of death was scheduled for the following day, but Salem police released no information about the results in announcing the arrests.
Marion County Circuit Court records show that Davenport filed to divorce his wife in a previous relationship last November. He listed the couple, who married in 2016, as having two children – a boy and a sibling two years younger. They had been living at a south Salem address until last year, the divorce filing showed. Davenport said his then-wife had “no stable home or income” and he sought sole custody of the children. His wife didn’t respond to the divorce petition and a state judge on Jan. 4 granted Davenport custody of the children. At the time, Davenport listed his former wife’s contact address as “unknown.”
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Father, partner arrested in death of Salem 6-year-old
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered the justice system and public safety for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
