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 the father found guilty of his murder was not a suspect, new information released Wednesday shows.
Neither of those cases, which involved a non-paternal relative, were substantiated, according to the Department of Human Services, which added Drummond to its list of near-deaths and child fatalities Wednesday.
The listing says Drummond's death was caused by abuse.
His father, Jeffery Clifton, avoided trial — and the possibility of receiving the death penalty — last month by pleading no contest and acknowledging that prosectors had enough information to convict him.
Clifton did not admit to his second-degree murder or abuse of a corpse charges and received a total of 40 years in prison from Circuit Court Judge Robert Edwards.
Police arrested Clifton, 43, in December after saying 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 Clifton fatally beat Drummond on Nov. 20, 2014, because the toddler had drank another child's drink.
On Nov. 23, the couple reported the child missing, prompting a large manhunt throughout the community that lasted almost a week.
Police said "inconsistencies" in Clifton and Marcotte's stories led to later interviews and their arrests a year later, according to their affidavits.
The fatality listing for Drummond released Wednesday shows that DHS workers first became involved with Drummond in June 2012, when they investigated a report of inadequate supervision. A year later, a report of a relative striking Drummond 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 DHS 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," DHS 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 District Prosecutor Rebecca Reed-McCoy, who tried the case.
“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.
Marcotte continues to face a charge of hindering arrest or prosecution.
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 DHS' Division of Children and Family Services, an increase from 23 in in 2011.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
