CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A northwestern Indiana judge has ordered a slain boy’s body released to his biological mother while the child’s father awaits trial in his killing.
Friday’s order by a Lake County Criminal Court judge directs the county coroner to release 13-year-old Christian Choate’s body to his mother, Aimee Eriks.
40-year-old Riley Choate is scheduled to stand trial starting Oct. 9 on murder and other charges in his son’s killing. The 13-year-old’s body was found in May 2011 in a shallow grave, two years after officials say he died.
Prosecutors say Choate kept his son locked in a dog cage for more than a year before he died.
The boy’s stepmother, 47-year-old Kimberly Kubina, pleaded guilty in May to a neglect charge.
