Punished for Being Sick- The Story of Leiliana Wright

“A paramedic became emotional trying to save the life that was already gone. ‘Um, I do remember picking up… uh, sorry. Okay, I picked up the little girl and she was limp, she was cold… um, sorry.’

Welcome or welcome back, I’m Cassie and this is A Wicked World.

So, the story that I have for you today is about a little girl who, despite being born in a prison to an abusive mother, still had so many people who loved her. But sadly, none of them could do any more than they were already doing to try to save her life. This is the story of Leiliana Wright.

Early Life with the Clackleys

Leiliana Wright was born on January 22nd, 2012, in Galveston, Texas. She was born in a prison hospital where her mother, Jerry Quesada, was serving time on a six-year sentence for a burglary conviction. Leiliana’s father is named Brian Macher. Leiliana was a sweet, happy, and funny little girl who had a contagious laugh. She loved to sing, dance, and she also loved to play with the chickens that her grandparents raised in their backyard. The little girl’s favorite song was “Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.”

At only 2 days old, Leiliana was placed with her paternal grandparents, Alisa and Craig Clackley. Her father, for one reason or another, was unable to take care of her at the time, and with her mother being in jail still, the Clackleys had stepped forward to raise Leiliana. She had a great home and she was happy there. They treated Leiliana more like a daughter than a granddaughter. While Leiliana was in her grandparents’ care, they would still bring her to the prison from time to time so she could visit with her mother. The Clackleys would also give Jerry money while she was in jail so that she could buy things at the commissary. Now, they weren’t even her parents, keep in mind—they were Leiliana’s father’s parents—and they were still giving her money. The Clackleys seemed like very kind and caring people, and Leiliana was lucky to have a home with them.

But unfortunately, that would not last very long.

Jerry Regains Custody

When Leiliana was 2, in December of 2013, her mother would be released early from prison on parole, and at that time she got custody back of Leiliana. Now, Jerry wasn’t just a convicted felon; she was also a drug addict, and her older children had been taken away from her. She hadn’t had custody of them in years; they are all now living with their father.

Actually, Jerry had also been arrested in 2007 in Illinois for domestic battery. This prompted Child Services to open an abuse and neglect case. Then, in 2008, Jerry was arrested for driving with an open container of alcohol. The same year, she would also be arrested on a drug possession charge. Two years after that, an Illinois judge would take her children away from her, and in 2010 she had been arrested on her felony burglary charge—the one that she had been serving time for when Leiliana was born.

Shortly after Jerry got out of jail and obtained custody of Leiliana, she would again become pregnant and give birth to another child in October of 2014. Because, you know, if you’re not able to keep your other children, just keep having more—that’s the solution.

For the first five or six months that Leiliana was back in her mother’s care, she would still go visit her grandparents from time to time and she was happy while she was there. But when it was time to return to her mother, she would have meltdowns. After five or six months had gone by, these visits to her grandparents’ house would become more and more rare.

CPS Involvement and Missed Red Flags

On October 20th, 2014, Child Protective Services (CPS) would receive a report in regards to Leiliana’s younger brother. The report raised concerns that the then six-day-old baby had been born with drugs in his system, as his mother was said to use methamphetamine while she was pregnant.

Then, on November 9th, 2014, Child Protective Services received another report in regards to Leiliana and her younger brother. This time it was because, during a traffic stop, Jerry had been found in possession of methamphetamine, and at the time Leiliana was in the car with her. Leiliana had been placed into emergency custody and then later released to Jerry’s at-the-time boyfriend, who was also the father to Leiliana’s younger brother. This boyfriend was also a convicted felon who had a bad temper and was said to hit Jerry as well as his own mother. So… winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Leiliana and her brother would not be in his care very long though, because a few days later they were found to be living with the little brother’s paternal relatives because his father had actually gone to jail on sexual assault charges just a few days after Jerry did.

The Grandparents’ Failed Legal Battle

Only a few weeks later, Leiliana would be sent to live with her paternal grandparents again, the Clackleys. At this time, they filed an affidavit trying to gain custody of the little girl because they knew she was clearly in a bad situation in her mother’s care. In this affidavit, Alisa, Leiliana’s grandmother, wrote: “Leiliana’s emotional status is not good and she needs to be taken out of harm’s way. I pray the court protects our granddaughter from what she is going through and what she is facing.” She would also mention that Jerry was using drugs around both of the children.

But despite Alisa’s affidavit raising these concerns, her attorney advised her to come to an agreement with Jerry outside of the courtroom. For some reason, he told her if she was to go into that courtroom, she would probably lose everything. So, believing him and thinking that she may never see her granddaughter again, Alisa agreed to this, and from prison, Jerry signed off on paperwork that would grant the Clackleys visitation rights with Leiliana. According to this agreement, the Clackleys were to have Leiliana on the first and third Saturday of each month. While this is more than they were probably seeing her prior to, it’s a bit of a slap in the face when they were going for full custody to only being able to see her two days a month.

So as a result of this being handled outside of the courtroom, the judge never saw or heard the case, never saw the affidavit, and did not know about DCF’s prior history with Jerry. But the judge would sign off on the agreement anyways. Yes, without knowing any of these very important details. In October 2014, two months before the scheduled hearing, CPS already had a report that Leiliana’s little half-brother was born with drugs in his system, and during that investigation, the children’s mother tested positive on a drug test. Despite all of this evidence existing, Alisa Clackley’s attorney did not file any supporting documents with the court to back up his client’s sworn statement.

Despite Alisa Clackley’s affidavit raising her concerns, her attorney advised her to come to an agreement outside of Judge Haddock’s courtroom. He said, “Alisa, if you go into her courtroom”—or his exact words—”you are going to lose everything.” These attorneys were um, “afraid,” if you will, to go into her courtroom. Both parties agreed to give Leiliana’s mother custody and guarantee the Clackleys’ visitation rights. As a result, the judge never heard the case but signed off on the agreement. Alisa’s attorney, Gregory Houseworth, declined to talk with us about why he advised Clackley not to go before Judge Haddock. Clackley filed a complaint with the Texas bar against Houseworth. She believes if there had been a hearing in the case, Leiliana would be alive today.

“Anytime harm comes to a child, it’s frustrating and it’s heartbreaking,” Judge Haddock was appointed by Judge William Harris in April of last year, a month after Leiliana’s death. Judge Harris told us there was no court documentation of CPS’s involvement and that is possibly one reason why critical information did not come to it. “It certainly appears that there should have been a hearing on this case. It certainly appears that the court should have been given some evidence about the mother and about her circumstances, and I think it’s tragic that the court never was allowed to hear that evidence.”

Escalating Abuse

So, the methamphetamine charge that Jerry had been arrested on back in November only ended up costing her a few weeks in jail. When she got out, she went to live with her mother and she got back custody of Leiliana. After Jerry’s release from jail, the Clackleys still saw their granddaughter twice a month per their court agreement, and DCF staff would begin visiting the home of Leiliana and her little brother on a monthly basis.

Then, on February 23rd, 2015, Leiliana’s grandmother would express concerns to a DCF staff member, saying that Leiliana had come over for a visit with bruises on her face and a cut lip. In response to this, a caseworker spoke to Leiliana over the phone, at which time she told them that Jerry had smacked her in the face and lips. Photos of these injuries were provided to CPS staff, and the following day a worker would go over to Jerry’s mother’s home, where Leiliana was living, to check on things. At this time, Leiliana again told the social worker that she had been smacked in the face by her mother, but Jerry, as well as her mother, denied that there was any physical abuse of the little girl. They both said that Leiliana was very clumsy and she was always running into things.

During another interview, Leiliana would tell DCF staff members that she had actually just run into a wall and that’s how she had gotten the busted lip. Of course, she had probably been coached because, as I said, this interview was later on, so her mother probably told her to not say that it was her and her answer changed. The investigation ended up being closed on April 3rd of 2015, and any abuse was ruled out.

Even though she had denied any physical abuse of Leiliana going on in the home, Jerry’s mother, Adeline Carr, would say how timid and skittish Leiliana was. She said that her granddaughter was quiet and shy and would stare and point at things rather than asking for them verbally. She was also frightened of loud and sudden noises, and Leiliana would not leave her bedroom until she was given permission to do so.

Moving in with Charles Phifer

In September of 2015, Jerry and her two children—which she still had custody of at this point, for some reason—would move in with her new boyfriend, Charles Phifer. They would live in a home together in Grand Prairie which had belonged to Jerry’s late grandmother. The couple and the children lived together for several months before Jerry and the kids would move back to her mother Adeline’s house. And even though they no longer lived together, Jerry would still go over and visit Charles and stay there so that they could use heroin together.

So, Charles is also a great guy… CPS had actually been involved with Charles in the past. This includes history from both New Mexico and Texas. Allegations had been made against him in 2003 and 2005 of neglectful supervision as well as physical abuse due to domestic violence. These allegations would end up being unfounded. Charles had also had his daughter removed from his care in 2011 by Child Protective Services, and she had later been adopted. On top of all that, he also had a history of abusing different drugs. At this time, it was heroin.

In January of 2016, Child Protective Services would receive yet another report alleging that there was possible physical and sexual abuse happening in the home, as well as neglect on Jerry’s part. It said that the sexual abuse was by another family member that was unnamed. DCF staff would try to meet with the family numerous times until they finally made contact on February 9th, 2016. At that time, Jerry denied that there was any abuse going on, of course. But during this visit, Leiliana was observed as having a purple bruise under her left eye and another older bruise on her right eye. She also had an old bruise on her hand.

Jerry would say that the healing bruise on Leiliana’s eye had been from a year ago when she ran into a table. She said that had remained that color the entire time. The bruise on the other eye she said was from her falling down having a temper tantrum, and the bruise on her hand she said was when a “friend” was watching her. The friend would later be revealed to be Charles. This friend had smacked Leiliana on the hand. When Leiliana was questioned, she said she didn’t remember where the bruises had come from, but at this time she did accuse another family member of sexually assaulting her.

Jerry was instructed to not allow any contact between Leiliana and the family member who was allegedly sexually abusing her, and she was not to have any contact with the friend who had put the bruise on her hand. To this, Jerry agreed, but she would not actually follow through with that agreement. Due to more concerns of abuse in the home, on February 17th, 2016, Child Protective Services filed an affidavit, and on this affidavit, it noted that the children were likely to be removed from the home. But this would never happen, and subsequent attempts to contact the family would be unsuccessful.

The Tragic Night of March 13th, 2016

Then, on March 13th, 2016, DCF would receive their final report in regards to Leiliana. It would be about her death.

Grand Prairie Police had been called to respond to a medical emergency shortly after midnight at Jerry’s grandmother’s home, which was on the 2200 block of 14th Street. This is where Leiliana had been left in Charles’s care. When the first responders arrived on the scene, they found that 4-year-old Leiliana was not breathing. Her face was 75% covered in bruises. One of her eyes was so swollen that she probably couldn’t have seen out of it, and there were ligature marks on her wrists. The little girl was cold and limp.

Jerry tried to tell first responders that she had just fallen in the shower; that was the only thing that had happened. She then asked if she could go in the ambulance with her daughter to the hospital, but they told her no, she would have to wait for investigators because she and her boyfriend needed to answer some questions. And one of the firefighters who was the first responder to the scene was so upset by the condition that Leiliana was in that he hadn’t even waited for a stretcher from the ambulance. He had picked up the little girl in his arms and carried her outside. He then told the other firefighters that they needed to go with him to the hospital, and they then left the fire truck there with the lights on and the doors still open.

Leiliana was taken to the Medical Center of Arlington emergency room. Doctors and nurses spent 30 minutes trying to resuscitate her, but there was nothing they could do to save her life, and little Leiliana was pronounced dead on March 13th, 2016.

Police and medical staff had been reduced to tears standing outside of Leiliana’s hospital room. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her condition. Sergeant Brad McAvoy from the Grand Prairie Police would say it was the worst thing he had ever seen inflicted on a child. During her autopsy, it would be discovered that Leiliana had died of blunt force trauma, not only to her head but also to her abdomen. In fact, she had been hit or kicked so hard that her belly wall had slammed into her spine. There was also evidence of sexual abuse.

The Interrogation and Confession

When the police arrived at the home to question Jerry and Charles, Jerry was frantic and, due to her emotional state, she had a hard time answering questions. Charles, however, seemed to show absolutely no emotion. By this time, the pair had corroborated that Leiliana had actually been at a friend’s house over in Oak Hill for the last two days. When she had arrived home, they said she was covered in bruises at that point, and they believed it was from the friend’s older sister. But you did nothing? You didn’t call the police? That bruising is normal? Hm.

They then went on to say that when Leiliana had returned home, she wanted to take a shower, and during that shower, they had heard a thud. They then discovered that Leiliana had collapsed in the shower and that had caused her death.

After giving this series of events, Jerry asked to speak with the police officer alone. The police officer brought her out to his cruiser, and then Jerry told him what had actually happened to Leiliana that night. She also told him that she was scared of Charles. Jerry said that she had been frustrated with her daughter in the days leading up to Leiliana’s death because she had been acting out and talking back to her. She was also upset because Leiliana was throwing up and not eating. In a text message that would later be found from Jerry to Charles, it would say that she believed Leiliana was vomiting for attention from everyone. I’m sorry, what? Attention for vomiting at four years old? Are you for real?

On Friday, March 11th, 2016, Leiliana was still not feeling well and had vomited in her bed. At that point, she also had a bump and a bruise on the right side of her head from a previous fall. Throughout the day, Jerry and Charles would use heroin and hurt the little girl because they were upset that she was “trying to seek attention” for vomiting and she wasn’t eating. So they decided that in order to remedy this, they would hit her with a bamboo stick and a belt throughout the day.

The following day, on March 12th, Jerry stopped by to see Charles and, after using heroin again with him, she had to run some errands and she took her youngest son back to her mother’s house. However, she left Leiliana with Charles for a while. Jerry would say that she left Leiliana with Charles because the little girl was so badly bruised she couldn’t be seen with her like that in public. When Jerry later returned around 3:30 p.m., she had bought some Pedialyte for Leiliana, and at that time she said everything seemed fine. Leiliana was watching TV, though she had been forced to stand up by Charles as a punishment for puking. Completely unfazed by this, Jerry again went to use drugs and then decided she needed to take a nap, so she went back to her mother’s house to have her nap. When she woke up, she called Charles to see how Leiliana was doing. At that point, he said that the little girl was fine.

So Jerry and her youngest child, along with her parents, would go out to a steak dinner that night in Arlington. Following dinner, Jerry would bring her son back to her mother’s house and put him to bed between 9:00 and 9:30. Jerry then returned to where Charles was living to use drugs with him yet again. When she got there, they went right to the bathroom, and it wasn’t until after that she asked about Leiliana. So she got there, didn’t see her daughter anywhere, and just went and used drugs and didn’t care. She didn’t think anything was wrong at that point? I… I don’t believe it.

After Jerry had asked where her daughter was, Charles told her that she was in the closet in the living room. And when Charles opened the door to this closet, Jerry saw that Leiliana was bound by her wrists with electrical wire and she was strung up to the coat rods with old belts, preventing her from sitting down at all. Jerry said there was also something tied around her stomach, and Leiliana had even more bruising all over her face. Jerry then told Charles to untie Leiliana from the closet, which he did.

After this, she brought Leiliana into the kitchen and made her a peanut butter sandwich which she tried to feed her, but Leiliana was still having trouble eating. At that point, Charles was angry because she wasn’t eating and clearly just “looking for attention” in his mind, so he put on a pair of gloves, pulled Leiliana up by her face, and poured the Pedialyte down her throat. Poor little Leiliana just stood by her mother after that, silently, until all of a sudden she made a gesture like she had to vomit again. She went running to the bathroom, but on the way, she would end up vomiting in the kitchen on the floor, and of course, this made Charles angry.

Charles then grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground with one hand. He then took Leiliana and slammed her into the drywall, leaving an indentation in the wall. After that, Charles took the little girl and threw her into the closet and slammed the door. Eventually, Charles would pull Leiliana back out of the closet, but at this point, she had urinated and vomited all over herself, so Jerry decided to give her a shower.

Before the shower, Jerry went to grab some clothes for Leiliana, and it was at this point that she heard Charles in the bathroom with her daughter and he yelled, “Get you some of this!” He then walked out of the bathroom and Jerry heard Leiliana collapse in the bathtub. Jerry said at this point she ran into the bathroom and began trying to get Leiliana dried and dressed, but then she fell unconscious in her arms. Jerry attempted to give Leiliana CPR and she told Charles to call 911. Charles yelled back at her that the little girl was just faking it, to which Jerry told him she’s not breathing, and then he decided to call 911.

During the 911 call, Charles told the dispatcher that the little girl was having a hard time breathing. The dispatcher then gave him instructions over the phone of what he should do until the ambulance arrived. However, it didn’t sound like he was following those instructions or passing them off to Jerry. And at one point during the 911 call, Charles even said to the dispatcher about Leiliana: “She’s been hurting herself lately. She’s four.”

Arrests and Trials

So after Jerry told police what had really happened to her daughter Leiliana that night, she asked on an update on her condition, and the detective informed her at that time that Leiliana had passed away. During additional police interviews, Jerry would admit that she had kicked Leiliana in the past, as well as hit her in the chest, popped her in the mouth, spanked her with a belt, and struck her with a bamboo switch as discipline for not eating.

30-year-old Jerry Quesada would be arrested and charged with felony injury to a child. Her bail was set to $500,000. A few days later, Charles Phifer would also be arrested and held on the same charge. His bail, however, was set to $1 million, and Leiliana’s little brother would be placed into foster care.

Following his and mother Jerry’s arrest in 2016, while he was awaiting trial, Charles Phifer, against the advice of his attorney, gave an interview, and honestly, it’s a little bit laughable because it’s very clearly BS. In this interview, Charles claimed that he did not kill Leiliana and anyone who knew him knew he would not be capable of that. He also said that she was his little buddy and that he loved her like his own. He also said that he misses her every day. Charles went on to say that during the time he and Jerry had lived together, he had seen Jerry hit the little girl twice. He said that the little girl was afraid of her mother and would always do what she was told out of fear, and he said if he said anything he was told to mind his own business by Jerry. Charles would also try to make himself sound like he was caring and say that he had been in contact with the Clackleys because he was trying to get them custody back of Leiliana. However, he did not tell Jerry that he was doing this because he was afraid of what would happen—at the very least, he said, he would lose his place to stay. So, I’m thinking maybe like 5% of all of what I just said is true. If that.

In July of 2017, Jerry Quesada would plead guilty to felony injury of a child as part of a plea deal. As part of this agreement, she would have to testify against Charles at his trial. Jerry would later be handed down a sentence of 50 years in prison, and she would say that her reason for accepting the plea deal was because her daughter needed justice. She says, “I know where I went wrong, but I’m not the only one who did it.”

In October of 2018, 36-year-old Charles Phifer would go to trial. He was originally indicted for felony injury to a child, but a grand jury had since added a capital murder charge. The state would call Jerry, Jerry’s mother, first responders, detectives, and medical professionals to testify at his trial. Charles, however, did not testify on his own behalf, and his attorney did not call forth any witnesses. Instead, their strategy was to attack the credibility of Jerry’s testimony against Charles.

Prosecutors would show the court DNA evidence that had been collected, and Leiliana’s DNA had been found in Charles’s fingernail clippings. Her DNA was also found on a glove that Jerry had said he used to torture the little girl, and her DNA had been found on the cracked wall that Jerry testified Charles had thrown the little girl into. When photos of Leiliana all blackened and bruised were shown to the jurors, they were clearly disturbed by them. Jurors had been shown pictures of the marks on her wrists and the whip marks on her back. A medical examiner would say that Leiliana had suffered at least 12 blows, possibly even more with overlapping injuries.

Jerry Quesada would also testify in court per her plea agreement; however, she would admit that she was high on heroin most of the day. So because of this, Charles’s lawyers were able to point out multiple discrepancies in her testimony. Charles’s attorney would argue that Jerry was only trying to save herself by blaming his client for her daughter’s death. Well, yeah, she took a plea deal, of course she is trying to save herself. Duh. But the prosecution would argue that while both Charles and Jerry were responsible for Leiliana’s death, Charles had been the one who had been home almost the entire day with her, and Jerry’s story about what had happened to Leiliana in the 48 hours prior to her death had already been corroborated by cell phone records, eyewitness testimony, and receipts. The records showed that Jerry was away from the house for most of the day, but as we know, she was home at the time that Leiliana died, so who knows if she actually had a hand in the murder or not.

Sentencing and Outrage

Prior to Charles’s sentencing, Brian Macher, Leiliana’s biological father, would read his victim impact statement. In it, he recalled that the last time he had seen his daughter, he had taken her to see Santa Claus. He said Leiliana was happy—that is, until she saw her mother again. He would say to Jerry in court: “The moment she saw your vehicle that day, she screamed and cried and begged me not to send her back to you. You should have let me have her.” Brian says he still has nightmares about his daughter with the sound of terror in her voice. He said his little girl was loved by so many others, and he wishes that his parents’ attempt to gain custody had gone through before she died.

At the end of his trial in October of 2018, a jury would find Charles Phifer guilty of capital murder. This earned him an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole. For some reason, however, the district attorney had not ended up seeking the death penalty.

The judge spoke to Charles as he was handing down his sentence. He told Charles that the case was the worst he had ever seen and life in jail seems insufficient. The judge went on to say, “Hanging a little girl in a closet is savage. You should die in a locked closet if Texas had one. But they don’t have one for you, unfortunately.” My kind of man, though. After he said this, the State Judicial Ethics Commission would reprimand the judge, saying that the comments he made to Charles Phifer were undignified and discourteous.

Of course, Leiliana’s death sparked public outrage, and it prompted an investigation and changes to be made within Child Protective Services. The agency acknowledged an overloaded system which caused the caseworkers to overlook a pattern of abuse. Given this, within days of Leiliana’s death, the caseworker and the supervisor who had worked on her case were fired, and one of the special investigators resigned.

Remembering Leiliana

Leiliana Wright’s memorial service was held on March 22nd, 2016, at the Bean-Massey-Burge Funeral Home. She was later cremated. Then, on April 10th, 2016, more than 60 people gathered together for a candlelight vigil at Katherine Rose Memorial Park in Mansfield, Texas, to remember Leiliana Wright.

Her grandmother, Alisa Clackley, said during the vigil: “I hope that tonight will give me the push forward to go on and fight this.” Many of Leiliana’s family and friends at the vigil wore bright yellow shirts that read “Justice for Leiliana.”

Well, thank you for listening to all of Leiliana’s story today. This little girl was so badly beaten, but it’s yet another story about Child Protective Services ignoring every single red flag, and then it was too late. All Leiliana wanted was love, and she had other people around her who loved her and cared for her, but they were never given the opportunity to do so. Instead, little Leiliana was forced to live in a house full of drugs, anger, and violence. It should never have happened.