Father admits killing 3-month-old son in bucket of laundry detergent
Through Haitian Creole interpreters, Eliasard Moneus agrees to plea agreement in murder of 3-month-old son and attempted murder of his wife in a Lafayette apartment in August 2024
Eliasard Moneus acknowledged in court Thursday morning that on the August 2024 night he fractured the skull of his wife with a tire iron, intending to kill her, he put their 3-month-old son Jacob head-first into a bucket of laundry detergent, sealed it and left the Lafayette apartment.
Flanked by public defense attorneys and a Haitian Creole interpreter, Moneus, 29, quietly answered, “Oui,” as Judge Steve Meyer ask if he understood the terms of a plea agreement he’d signed before Thursday’s hearing in Tippecanoe Superior Court 2.
Moneus pleaded guilty Thursday to the murder of Jacob and the attempted murder of his wife on Aug. 10, 2024. He had been scheduled to go to trial in less than two weeks.
According to the agreement read in court, Moneus faces a minimum of 65 years in prison, with the potential for up to 95 years, for the charges of murder and attempted murders.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors will drop related charges of aggravated battery and domestic battery with a deadly weapon. The plea also laid out that Moneus, who had been living in Lafayette under a temporary protected status as an immigrant from Haiti, could be deported if he’s released from the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Meyer set sentencing for July 1.
According to court filings with charges against Moneus, police started investigating the afternoon Aug. 10, after his wife drove herself to IU Arnett Hospital for wounds she told officers came from Moneus, the father of Jacob and her husband of 11 months.
According to the prosecutor’s account, she told police that Moneus got upset with her on Aug. 5 and left, and that the two hadn’t spoken until he arrived at the apartment on Lexington Court on Aug. 10. She told police she was in the apartment watching a church service on TV with Jacob when Moneus came in and took the child. She said Moneus returned about a half-hour later, came into a bedroom and struck her several times with a tool. She wound up with a fractured skull, according to court documents.
In court Thursday, Moneus acknowledged that he’d taken a tire iron from the trunk of their car and had hidden it in a closet, retrieving it later to hit his wife.
According to the court filing, his wife told police she did not know where Jacob was. Police searched the apartment on Aug. 10 but could not find him.
Indianapolis police found Moneus in an apartment complex in Lawrence later that day. At the Tippecanoe County Jail, according to the court filing, Moneus admitted that he’d hit his wife two or three times with the tool from his vehicle and had hoped she’d die from the injuries.
According to the court filing, Moneus initially told police that Jacob was at the apartment when the battery happened. He told officers that the child was OK, but he did not offer any other details about where he was, according to the court filing.
After issuing a Silver Alert for the missing child that day, police the next morning checked an orange, snap-seal bucket next to a kitchen trash can in his family’s apartment. That’s where they found Jacob.
An autopsy in August 2024 indicated that Jacob died of asphyxia.
Moneus has been held at the Tippecanoe County Jail since his arrest.
On Thursday, Moneus’ attorneys said he’d been diagnosed, but never treated, for post-traumatic stress disorder. Moneus told the judge he had no previous criminal record.
The judge set three hours for the July 1 sentencing hearing.
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That set of facts was horrifying to read.