Angela West is a killer from Missouri who was convicted of the murder of a five year old girl
According to court documents Angela West and her codefendent Shamira Buford would hogtie the five year old girl and stick a sock in her mouth as she apparently took food. A young boy would tell a resource teacher at school that something had happened to the child. When authorities would arrive another child would tell them that her sister was dead. Authorities would discover the body of five year old inside of the home
Unfortunately following an autopsy it was revealed that this was not the first time that the little girl suffered. Angela West (photo left) and Shamira Buford would be arrested and charged with murder
Angela West would plead guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Shamira Buford is due to go on trial in 2024
Angela West Case
A Waynesville woman was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday in connection to the death of a child earlier this year.
Angela West pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree resulting in the death of a child.
Waynesville police responded to a home in the 700 block of Washington Street in early March and found a deceased 5-year-old girl.
During the investigation, police determined that the adults in the home regularly disciplined the victim by tying her up at night with ropes, and if she cried, they placed a sock in her mouth and covered it with duct tape, according to a press release from the Pulaski County Office of Prosecuting Attorney.
The cause of death was determined to be suffocation. The child had extensive ligature marks and bruises from the ropes, and was very malnourished, court documents said.
Angela West was one of two adults who participated in the abuse of the child resulting in her death, Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Hillman said.
Shamira Buford is also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, abuse or neglect of a child, second-degree murder and first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Buford will face a jury trial in June 2024, according to online court records.
“This is one, if not the most tragic case, I have seen in my 13 years as prosecuting attorney,” Hillman said in a press release. “These were heinous acts perpetrated on a young and innocent victim over a long period of time and I commend Judge Beger for sentencing the defendant to life imprisonment for her role in this abuse and death of this child.”
Angela West will serve the time in the Missouri Department of Corrections
Angela West News
Two women in Missouri were arrested this week on a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing a 5-year-old girl who was hogtied and gagged with a sock in her mouth in an effort to prevent the child from stealing food, police said. Angela West, 40, and Shamira Buford, 36, were taken into custody on Tuesday and both charged with second-degree murder, first-degree involuntary manslaughter, abuse or neglect of a child – resulting in death and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the little girl’s death, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the Waynesville Police Department, on the morning of March 7, a young student contacted a Waynesville School resource officer and reported that prior to arriving at school he saw that his younger sister was unconscious and unresponsive on the floor in their home. The resource officer immediately contacted the police who responded to the residence located in the 700 block of Washington Street, which is about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Upon arriving at the home, first responders say they made contact with another one of the reporting child’s siblings. The second child answered the door and “stated that her younger sibling was deceased inside the residence.”
“Officers made entry and confirmed that one person, a 5-year-old female, was unconscious and unresponsive,” the release states. “After the Waynesville Officers secured the area, the victim was pronounced deceased on scene by Pulaski County Coroner Roger Graves.”
The two adult females in the residence — later identified as Angela West and Buford — were subsequently taken into custody and transported to the Pulaski County Jail. County Circuit Judge Colin Long ordered both of the defendants to be held without bond pending additional proceedings.
Police provided additional details in a sworn affidavit of probable cause obtained by Springfield CBS affiliate KOLR.
According to the report, West and Buford were both asleep when police arrived at their home at around 8:50 a.m. and the child who answered the door told the officers that their younger sibling had choked. It was reportedly Buford who then found the child’s body covered by a blanket in the living room.
Police said that the deceased girl appeared to have “significant” ligature marks around her wrists, ankles, and neck. A grey sock that was “saturated in an unknown substance” and appeared to have blood on it was found next to the child’s body, Columbia ABC affiliate KMIZ reported.
The child who made the initial report allegedly told police that both women had been tying up his little sister at night for several weeks because she steals food, KOLR reported. Another child reportedly said West and Buford would make the 5-year-old’s siblings help tie her up to a futon.
According to KOLR, Buford admitted to police that she and West would tie up the 5-year-old because she “continued to steal food.” They allegedly began by using duct tape and eventually moved on to “hogtying” the child using nylon rope. Buford also allegedly admitted that they used the sock to gag the child because her “whining and crying” kept the other children up at night, reports say.
“We got tired of telling her to be quiet,” Buford told police when asked about the sock-gag, KMIZ reported.
“I thought she was OK because she could breathe through her nose,” West reportedly said in reference to the sock.
Buford and West are scheduled to appear before Judge Long for a bond review on March 13, court records show.
