FATHER IDENTIFIED: DNA links stepfather to 11-year-old girl’s baby
An 11-year-old girl gave birth
By Isabel Flores
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MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma (KJRH) — The Muskogee County District Attorney’s Office said an 11-year-old girl gave birth over the weekend, and the girl’s stepfather is the baby’s father.
Assistant District Attorney Janet Hutson told 2 News DNA testing revealed a 99% certainty Dustin Walker is the baby’s father.
Hutson said the 11-year-old lived with Walker and her mother, Cherie Walker. Both are charged with child neglect, and Huston said new charges will now be added, following the DNA results.
“The guardians are currently in the Muskogee County Jail,” said Hutson. “They both have a $100,000 bond in place. Like I said, I do anticipate filing additional charges and amending that information shortly.”
Hutson said this is a tough case to prosecute, but she knows it is important to seek justice. They are waiting on paternity test results to determine the baby’s father; those could take 2 weeks.
“I was horror-stricken to find out it’s an 11-year-old little girl who’s given birth,” said Hutson. “And that she had no medical care, and she had no one to be with her.”
Hutson said the case is making waves in the community. The 11-year-old and her siblings have been removed from the home.
Cheryl Adkins lives next to the house where the 11-year-old lived. She said the children were exposed to unstable and unsanitary conditions.
“They have no running water for the last two or three years,” she said. “They have dogs in the house. They have cats in the house, six children.”
She said she made several calls to police and authorities to check on the children and is scared that help arrived too late.
She’s convinced the family knew of the pregnancy, “This is getting to me. They robbed her of her childhood.”
While out speaking with Adkins, 2 News ran into the 11-year-old’s grandmother, who preferred to go by Michelle.
She said the community doesn’t know the whole story, “I just want people to know, we did not know this was happening. None of us.”
Michelle said she wants to see her grandchildren again.
“They’ve made my daughter and my son-in-law a monster,” she said. “They are not. They love those children. They love them.”
In terms of the conditions in the house, Michelle said it has to do with the pets.
“We have animals, and so sometimes there’s trash on the floor because the dogs get into the trash,” she said. “It gets cleaned up. Right now, it’s probably a mess because the animals are in there. We try to let them out, but they try to keep it clean.”
Before Walker was identified as the baby’s father, rumors circulated about the baby’s father. Michelle has her own opinion.
“She keeps telling us that it was a little 12-year-old that I used to babysit,” she said. “She keeps telling everybody that it was him. They got curious. That’s all I know.”
The Muskogee County District Attorney’s office confirmed the father’s identity on August 25.
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