Maliyah Bass: Mother, boyfriend dumped Houston toddler’s body in sewer drain after beating death

HOUSTON — A Houston woman and her boyfriend, who publicly expressed sorrow and anger after her 2-year-old daughter was found dead in a bayou in August, have been charged in connection with the little girl’s death.

Sahara Ervin, 20, and Travion Thompson, 21, were arrested Tuesday and charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence. That evidence was the body of Maliyah Rosalie Bass, according to Houston police officials.

Court documents allege that Ervin struck Maliyah, known as “Tootie” by loved ones, with a blunt object. According to court documents obtained by ABC 13 in Houston, Thompson told detectives Ervin beat the girl with a hairbrush the night of Aug. 20 when she would not go to sleep.

Thompson said the couple put the girl, naked, in a broom closet. When they checked on her the next morning, she was dead, the news station reported.

Court records indicate Thompson is accused of not protecting the girl from her mother. Thompson, like Ervin, is also accused of failing to provide reasonable medical care after Maliyah was injured.

Both are accused of disposing of the toddler’s body.

“After (Maliyah’s) death, the defendant and co-defendant put her body in a sewer drain, where it floated into a bayou and was discovered by a citizen,” the documents state.

Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said that Ervin reported Maliyah missing around 9:30 a.m. Aug. 22, saying she’d left the child alone on the playground at the Sunset Crossing Apartments for five minutes in order to make breakfast.

Ervin said when she returned, the child was gone.

Authorities immediately launched a search for Maliyah, which included volunteers from Texas Equusearch, an organization dedicated to finding missing persons. An Amber Alert was also issued overnight for the girl’s safe return, Acevedo said.

The search came to a tragic end around 10:30 a.m. the next day when a jogger found Maliyah’s body floating in Brays Bayou, about 20 miles from the apartment complex.

Houston Fire Department water rescue personnel pulled the toddler from the water around 11:15 a.m., the police chief said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I’m highly confident that foul play is involved in this case,” Acevedo said at the scene. “What the family wants now is justice for a 2-year-old.”

Reporters at the scene that day captured footage of both Ervin and Thompson expressing strong reactions of grief. A sobbing Ervin collapsed on a sidewalk, and as people comforted her, another female family member ran up and demanded to know what was going on.

“Where is Maliyah? Where is Maliyah?” the distraught woman shouted.

After not getting answers, the woman turned to Thompson, who was standing nearby.

“Where is Maliyah, Travion? Travion, where is Maliyah?” she screamed as Thompson ran by her.

Thompson later spoke to reporters, accusing police of being less prepared to search for Maliyah than volunteers were. He also accused people of “bashing” him and Ervin on social media “like (they) did something.”

“That’s my baby,” he said of Maliyah. “She know her ABCs, she know her 123s. She know her colors. She only 2 (and) she know how to talk, very well, because of us. Me and my girl.”

Thompson appeared to break down as he spoke.

“She was smart. She was growing up to be something,” Thompson sobbed.

During a news conference the day Maliyah’s body was found, Acevedo urged residents and business owners around the bayou to pore over any security camera footage they had to determine if Maliyah or anyone associated with her was caught on video.

It is unclear if video was discovered, but police officials said Ervin and Thompson were brought in for questioning Monday “after evidence of their involvement in the disappearance of Maliyah was discovered.”

They were subsequently charged with the crimes.

In footage KHOU recorded the day Maliyah’s body was found, Thompson said he last saw the girl just before Ervin took her to the playground. The toddler hugged him and told him she loved him, he said.

“This is her routine every day,” Thompson said. “My mama could tell you this. She loves me.”

He said the only reason Ervin left the toddler alone was to fix them all something to eat.

“It was only five minutes. It happened so fast,” Thompson said as he continued to sob.

Thompson’s mother, Angel Harris, had harsh words for her son and Ervin after their arrests, saying they belong in prison if they killed Maliyah, who she loved like a granddaughter.

“I’m mad because I want to hurt both of them because I feel violated,” Harris told KPRC in Houston. "I feel sad. I feel betrayed.

“A part of me wanted to believe that somebody had took my baby off that playground. Now, I’m finding out that all along it was a story, an act.”

Andy Kahan of Crime Stoppers of Houston also talked to the news station about what he described as the couple’s peculiar behavior at the bayou crime scene.

“I remember mom was asking me about any victim compensation,” Kahan said. “I just thought that was a little bit odd. The last thing you’re concerned about is anything you’re entitled to.”

Kahan said he was concerned enough to pull the couple’s past criminal records. While Ervin doesn’t appear to have one in Harris County, Thompson was on probation for an aggravated robbery conviction at the time of Maliyah’s death, court records show.

In addition, he was twice convicted of assault.

Prosecutors used Thompson’s past in arguing for substantial bail.

“(Thompson’s) criminal history indicates his total disregard for human life and following the rules of society and the rules imposed by this court as a condition of probation,” prosecutors argued.

In arguing for sufficient bail for Ervin, prosecutors described the Michigan native as a flight risk. They said she had received money from contacts there and in Dallas, and that she’d reached out to her mother in Arkansas, wishing to move there and live with her.

“The defendant’s mother refused to let defendant move in with her,” the court records state. “These actions show defendant’s intention to flee from the jurisdiction of this court.”

Ervin’s bail was set at $175,000, jail records show. Thompson’s bail was set at $150,000.

Cox Media Group