Prosecutors building a case against Wesley Mathews say he may have previously fractured his 3-year-old daughter Sherin's leg and neglected to provide her with adequate nutrition for more than a year before her death, according to a court document filed by Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine on Wednesday.
The document, a notice of extraneous offenses, alleges crimes, wrongs or acts that prosecutors plan to introduce as evidence in the upcoming murder trial.
Sherin Mathews, who was adopted in India by Wesley Mathews and his wife Sini Mathews, was found dead in a Richardson culvert two weeks after her father reported her missing in October 2017. During the search for his missing daughter, Wesley told police he'd told Sherin to go outside and stand by a tree as punishment for not drinking her milk. He later changed his story and admitted to "physically assisting" his daughter in drinking her milk and said she choked. He then admitted to moving her body, though he said he planned to go back for her and give her a proper burial.
The Dallas County medical examiner later confirmed that Sherin died of "homicidal violence."
For the upcoming murder trial, prosecutors said they planned to introduce the following alleged crimes, wrongs or acts as evidence. Though he's been indicted in her murder, Wesley Mathews was never charged with any of the alleged offenses outlined below.
- On or about Feb. 1, 2017 in Dallas County, defendant acting alone or with Sini Mathews caused injury to Sherin Mathews resulting in fractures to the bilateral humerus, femur and tibia. Defendant and Sini Mathews did not disclose these injuries for at least one week. The history provided to doctors was not consistent with how the injuries occurred.
- On or about Feb. 24, 2017, in Dallas County, defendant failed to keep a scheduled appointment with the Failure to Thrive Clinic at Children's Hospital for his daughter Sherin Mathews.
- Defendant and Sini Mathews failed to provide adequate nutrition to Sherin Mathews from Sept. 1, 2016 until the time of her death.
- On Jan. 26, 2018, defendant had his parental rights terminated in regards to (redacted name of his 4-year-old biological daughter).
- On Oct. 6 and 7, 2018 and throughout the course of the investigation into the disappearance of Sherin Mathews, Defendant provided false and misleading information to the Richardson Police Department.
Child endangerment charges filed against Sherin's mother, Sini Mathews, were dropped March 1 after the Dallas County District Attorney said there was not enough evidence to proceed.
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In a statement released late in the afternoon March 1, the Richardson Police Department said they developed sufficient probable cause to obtain the arrest warrant against Sini and that the case was approved by the previous district attorney and an indictment was returned by a grand jury.
Wesley Mathews' murder trial is scheduled to begin June 24.
