WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — The mother of alleged murder victim two-year-old Wilder McDaniel has been indicted by a Wichita County grand jury for one count of child abandonment and endangerment and one count of tampering with evidence.

The indictments were filed for record on Thursday, July 22, 2021. To read the full redacted indictment click here.

The charge alleging endangerment states Amber McDaniel continued to allow her boyfriend James Staley, who is charged with capital murder, to have access to her son by bringing him to his house and allowing him to babysit her son, after numerous messages from Staley indicating his abuse or desire to harm Wilder.

Those text messages included Staley saying Wilder needed to be “culled”, calling him by a racial epithet and saying he would cure him of it, that he wanted to beat or punch him, and had beaten or punched him, that he had pushed his face in a dirty diaper and then pushed his face in the commode, and that he wanted to or had put Wilder into a tinderbox.

Further, it alleges after seeing significant bruises on Wilder’s face after he had been in Staley’s care, still let Staley have access to her son.

The count of tampering with evidence stems from allegations that McDaniel destroyed text messages in her phone containing the threats and comments about abuse from Staley.