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BY RUTHANN ROBINSON
Times Staff Writer | Monday, March 29, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
CROWN POINT -- A man who allegedly helped his wife torture her 18-year-old mentally handicapped daughter agreed to testify against his co-defendant wife in exchange for the state reducing the charges against him.
Keith Jax, 37, made the agreement March 19, the day after Lake Superior Judge Joan Kouros granted Marie Jax's motion to separate the trials and just three days before his trial was to begin.
Prosecutors charged the Jaxes on Sept. 26 with criminal deviate conduct, battery and five counts of neglect of a dependent. If convicted on all charges -- to which they've pleaded not guilty -- they face a maximum prison term of 65 years.
But according to the agreement drawn up by prosecutors, they will drop all but the battery charge against Keith Jax after they are satisfied he testified truthfully in Marie Jax's trial scheduled for August. Marie Jax's defense attorney told Kouros he plans to prove his client is not guilty by reason of insanity.
A Sept. 24 call to the 911 center in which the dispatcher could hear screaming in the background brought Lake County police to the Calumet Township home. When they got there, the 18-year-old came running out of the ramshackle house at 4301 Hayes St., hugged the officer and cried, "Don't let them hurt me," according to the probable cause affidavit.
Marie Jax told the teen "not to say anything or they would be taking Mommy and Daddy away," the officer stated in his report.
The Jaxes lost custody of their younger children three years ago because of the squalid conditions of their home. After taking parenting classes, the Jaxes regained custody of the children.
The officer said on Sept. 24, an outside portable generator supplied the only power to the house.
Inside, where the couple lived with the three younger children, her daughter and an unrelated adult male, the officer found dirty clothes and garbage covering the floor, nine puppies and two cats roaming around, dirty dishes in the sink and bare mattresses in the basement.
There were holes in the floor through which the officer could see into the basement, the report states.
Officers found exposed electrical wires and the door to the teen's bedroom had locks on the outside, the affidavit states.
During her interview, the teen said her mother and stepfather regularly put the exposed-wire ends of an electrical cord into her vagina and plugged the cord into the wall to shock her. They forced her to smoke a carton of cigarettes, eat cigarettes and burned her with the lit end of cigarettes.
She also said they punched her in the face. Officers documented the teen's injuries, which included several round burn marks on her arms, face, chest and legs. Her face was swollen.
The young man who lived in the house corroborated much of the teen's claims, the report states. He also related an incident in which he saw Marie Jax molest the teen with a fireplace poker.
The younger children are in child protective custody. The teenager is in California, where she lived prior to moving to Lake County.
Keith Jax remains in the Lake County Jail on a $135,000 bond. Marie Jax posted a $13,500 cash bond Dec. 30.
Ruthann Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@nwitimes.com or (219) 662-5331
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