Mother Faces Decades in Prison for Severely Starving 13-Year-Old Son

In a tragic case out of Tennessee, a mother has been sentenced after her 13-year-old son was found starved to death in appalling living conditions. Cheyenne Maddox, who faced charges following the death of her son, Kadaris Maddox, has been handed a 20-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole, as reported by Nashville’s ABC affiliate, WKRN.

The conviction, finalized in October 2025, included charges of reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse, shedding light on a deeply disturbing case. First responders who arrived at the family’s home on Virginia Terrace in Clarksville on July 6, 2022, were confronted with a harrowing sight. The house was in a state of extreme neglect, littered with so much debris that the floor was barely visible, according to reports from Clarksville Now.

Kadaris’ room was starkly bare, containing only a mattress, pillow, comforter, drying rack, and some electronic devices. Outside, investigators noted a wheelchair left to deteriorate in the elements, a grim symbol of the neglect endured within those walls.

Following this discovery, Kadaris was declared deceased, prompting the arrest of Maddox the following month. The Clarksville Police Department shared the news of her arrest, highlighting the severe neglect that led to this young boy’s untimely death.

Evidence presented by prosecutors painted a bleak picture of Kadaris’ final days. He weighed only 47 pounds at his last medical appointment. By the time of his death, he had wasted away to just 35 pounds. Officer Joshua Clegg, the first to respond, recounted how he was led into the home by a group of children, where he found Maddox holding Kadaris, his frail body wrapped in a purple comforter.

He was “just skin and bones,” Clegg testified of Kadaris, according to Clarksville Now. “He didn’t have a pulse,” Clegg continued, adding, “When I reached down and was checking on his ribs, there, he felt cold.”

Kadaris was born with cerebral palsy, per WKRN, but one of his doctors stated that he was cognitively intact and optimistic about his future.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Cheyenne Maddox was initially charged with five counts of aggravated child neglect because of the living conditions of the other kids. She was later charged with killing Kadaris.

“He died of malnutrition and he died of starvation,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Mary O’Connor said in court, according to the Nashville station. “It was almost [as] if his skin was wrapped around his bones.”

A memorial was held for Kadaris in November 2022. Dawn Maddox, Cheyenne’s mother and Kadaris’ grandmother, told Clarksville Now that “there was a lot of people that loved him because he brought so much joy into the world,” per WKRN. “Just to look at him, when he smiled, his eyes, he just lit up a room. An angel was taken the day he passed away.”

Before she was sentenced, Cheyenne Maddox reportedly told the court that “I know now and wish I could go back and change so many things and trade places so that he was here with his siblings, and it was me.” She added: “It’s my negligence that led to everything, and I hold myself accountable for that.”