Bond Reduced For Mom Of Richardson Toddler Found Dead
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A judge in Dallas County has decided the bond for a Richardson woman, charged with child endangerment after the death of her 3-year-old adopted daughter, should be lowered.
This morning the judge lowered the bond for Sini Mathews from $250,000 to $100,000. The 35-year-old woman is currently behind bars facing the charges after her daughter Sherin Mathews was found dead.
Prosecutors fought the bond reduction and told the judge, "The facts that are contained in the affidavit show that this woman is wicked enough to leave a 3-year-old girl alone in her house while she and her husband go out to dinner. That shows the level of depravity of this woman's heart in and of itself."
The abandonment charges center around investigators belief that Sini left Sherin home alone for more than an hour, while the rest of the family went to a restaurant in Garland and ate dinner.
According to a police report, a dinner receipt showed one child's meal was purchased and the waiter remembered only one child at the restaurant with Sini and her husband. The child with the couple is believed to have been their 4-year-old biological daughter.
Prosecutors also claimed Sini Mathews was a flight risk who could possibly try and flee to her native country of India. Richardson Police Department Detective Jules Farmer testified that Mrs. Mathews had asked for her biological daughter's shot records so the two of them could go to India.
After winning the petition to have the bond lowered Mrs. Mathews attorney, Mitchell Nolte, said, "We're happy that the judge reduced the bond. Obviously, we'd hoped it would be a little less but it's reasonable."
If Sini Mathews is able to post the bond she'll be under house arrest and required to wear an ankle monitor.
Sherin's adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, remains in jail on a $1 million bond on an Injury to a Child charge.
Originally, Mr. Mathews had told police that he was punishing Sherin for not drinking her milk and that at 3 a.m. he ordered her outside to stand by a tree about 100 feet outside their backyard. He said he left the little girl there and when he returned 15 minutes later discovered she was gone.
Arrest affidavits detail how later Wesley Mathews changed his story and claimed that he "physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk." It was then that Mr. Mathews said the toddler began to choke and that after coughing for a while her breathing slowed.
The 37-year old said that when he could no longer feel Sherin's pulse he "believed she had died" and removed the little girl from the house.
