Father of missing boy charged in his slaying (Houston, Texas)

Father of missing boy charged in his slaying (Houston, Texas)

Father of missing boy charged in his slaying

By BRIAN ROGERS

June 18, 2009, 9:24PM

A Houston man, already in jail for 10 more years on a federal weapons charge, could face life in prison after being indicted Thursday for felony murder in the 2006 disappearance of his 3-year-old son.

Police have said “red flags” in Roderick Fountain’s story about the boy walking out of Fountain’s southwest Houston apartment on April 7, 2006, led them to focus on the 34-year-old.

In the days after Kendrick Jackson disappeared, thousands of volunteers searched for the boy, who was never found. After the disappearance, defense lawyers said a witness saw a boy resembling Kendrick on a bus heading to Dallas.

Police said foul play was likely and classified the case as a homicide.

Family members, including the boy’s mother, could not be reached for comment Thursday. They have said they continue to pray for the boy and seek closure in the case.

Quanell X, a community activist and spokesman for the family during the 2006 search, said Kendrick’s mother, Keyanna Jackson, was intimidated by Fountain. He also blamed the Houston Police Department for the lag in the investigation.

“If the HPD homicide division wouldn’t have rushed in to charge him with a weapons charge, I believe we would have found young Kendrick’s body and this case would have been resolved long ago,” he said.

Fountain was indicted on the gun charge two weeks after Kendrick disappeared. He remains in federal prison with a projected release date of 2019, after being convicted of being a felon in possession of a weapon after his son’s disappearance. He was convicted of robbery in California in 1997.

Fountain will be brought back to Houston for the trial, said Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorneys office.

Hawkins said the case went to a grand jury Thursday with new evidence. Felony murder, which carries a maximum life sentence, alleges that death occurred as a result of a felony — in this case, injury to a child.

Fountain was charged with injury to a child after witnesses told investigators they saw several bruises on the boy’s body before Kendrick’s disappearance.

Fountain does not yet have an attorney in the case.