Oklahoma Boy's Sister Feared Telling Police of Abuse

OKLAHOMA CITY – The sister of an Oklahoma boy who has told police his mother locked him in apartment closets over a four-year period says she gave her brother food and sympathy but feared calling police.

Eighteen-year-old Jaleasa McCall told The Associated Press on Thursday that her mother beat, choked and tied up her 14-year-old brother. She says he was locked away for days at a time.

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She says she'd warn her brother not to chew food she brought him because their mother would check his teeth to see if he'd eaten.

Mother LaRhonda McCall and a friend are jailed on complaints of child abuse and neglect. Jail officials don't know of an attorney for either.

LaRhonda McCall served six months for a second-degree manslaughter conviction in New York in 1996 in her 2-year-old daughter's death.