The Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services twice looked into the well-being of Searcy toddler Malik Drummond before his disappearance and death in 2014, but his father -- now convicted in his murder -- was not a suspect, information released Wednesday shows.
Neither of the cases, which involved a nonpaternal relative, were substantiated, according to the Department of Human Services, which on Wednesday added Malik to its list of near-deaths and child fatalities.
The listing says Malik's death in November 2014 was caused by abuse.
His father, Jeffery Clifton, avoided a trial and the possibility of receiving the death penalty by pleading no contest last month to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and acknowledging that prosecutors had enough information to convict him. Clifton originally was charged with capital murder.
Clifton, 43, of Searcy did not admit to the second-degree murder or abuse of a corpse charges and received 40 years in prison from White County Circuit Judge Robert Edwards.
Police arrested Clifton in December 2015 after saying that he led them to the boy's remains, which were dumped in a rural area of Jackson County.
According to his arrest affidavit, Clifton's former girlfriend, Lesley Sue Marcotte, told detectives that Clifton fatally beat Malik on Nov. 20, 2014, because the toddler drank another child's drink.
On Nov. 23, 2014, the couple reported Malik missing, prompting a manhunt throughout the community.
Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers searched for the child. Pictures of the boy appeared in newspapers, on television newscasts, on billboards and even on video screens at some service stations for months in hopes that Malik would be found alive.
Police said "inconsistencies" in Clifton's and Marcotte's stories led to additional interviews and their arrests a year later, according to their affidavits.
Marcotte, 28, of Springdale is awaiting trial on a felony charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution. Her trial, originally set for June 14, now is set for July 12. Her next pretrial hearing is set for July 6.
The fatality listing released Wednesday for Malik shows that Human Services Department workers first became involved with Malik in June 2012, when they investigated a report of inadequate supervision. A year later, a report of a relative striking Malik was also investigated, according to the listing.
No other information about the reports -- including the identity of the "non-paternal relative" -- will be made available, a department spokesman said, citing privacy protections.
"It's important to note that we investigate more than 30,000 allegations of child abuse and neglect every year," Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said in an email. "Just because there was an allegation does not mean all those children are in danger nor does that mean we can predict future lethal behavior of a parent, especially one not involved in the earlier allegations."
Had Clifton gone to trial, it would have been up to the judge to determine if alleged abuses by others were relevant to the case, said 17th Judicial Circuit prosecutor Rebecca Reed McCoy.
"If we had gone to a full jury trial, the prosecution would have tried to get those reports" and submit them into evidence, Reed McCoy said.
Malik lived with his mother but had been staying at his father's home for about two weeks at the time of his disappearance.
According to a child welfare report commissioned by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015, 40 children who died last fiscal year had previous involvement with the Human Services Department's Division of Children and Family Services, an increase from 23 in 2011.
State Desk on 06/09/2016