BEAUMONT, Texas — New details of the kidnapping of Braylon Harris, 2, that happened in August have been revealed by a probable cause affidavit.
Harris was in the care of his grandfather, William Lawrence Jones, 55, who was with Harris and Georgiainna Latasha Randall, 29, at the Deluxe Inn on College Street in Beaumont according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that Jones allowed his grandson to go to a nearby store with Randall around 8 a.m. and then left for a period of time.
Jones told investigators that, to his knowledge, Randall uses crack cocaine and is a prostitute. He said that when he returned to the room, he discovered Randall and the child were gone.
He spent several hours throughout the day attempting to find Randall and the child, but was unable to do so according to the affidavit.
Surveillance video showed Randall left the Best Value Inn with Harris around 11:00 a.m. She made no attempt to call or request assistance, and left with Harris on foot.
She never attempted to return Harris to his mother or any other family member and hid him for around 22 hours according to the affidavit.
Someone discovered Randall with Harris inside an abandoned house on Myrna Loy Drive and returned him to his mother. Later, Randall was found by police inside the same abandoned house and was detained for investigation, the affidavit states.
Randall gave a statement where she admitted that she took Harris from the motel and kept him for 22 hours.
She admitted that she never made contact with police or any other agency regarding Harris. Several hours before she was discovered with him, she found out police were looking for Harris, who was considered missing and endangered. She made no attempt to return the child to his family or call police according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that Randall told numerous lies during the interview claiming that she tried to call police to return Harris several times over the 22 hours, but could not find a working phone anywhere. These statements were proven false by evidence.
