New charges filed in Kentucky against Riley Choate, the man charged along with his estranged wife Kimberly Kubina in the tragic, disturbing death of his son Christian, seem to have nixed any chance the two had at receiving bail.
According to the Northwest Indiana Times, Choate, 39, was charged Wednesday in a separate crime, likely involving a relationship with a minor, in Kentucky, only two days after the couple's bail hearing.
"Therefore the (petition for bail) is dismissed until such time as the hold from Kentucky has been resolved," Lake County court records stated, according to the Times. Their previously scheduled bail hearing for Nov. 17 has been canceled.
The two have been charged with murder, battery, neglect of a dependent, confinement, obstruction of justice, moving a body from a death scene and failure to notify authorities of a dead body in the death of Christian Choate. They have both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the bail hearing Monday, Christina Choate, Christian's 17-year-old older sister, shed new light on the final days of her slain brother's life and testified that she was forced by her father to "discipline" her younger brother, according to the Post-Tribune.
Christina, who testified under a grant of immunity, said she choked her brother Christian three times, including one time when he was yelling in an attempt to attract the attention of people standing outside their home. She also admitted to slapping her brother when he did not follow orders and said her father beat her as well, including after he learned that Christian had died, the Post-Tribune reports.
"He told me I better keep an eye on my brother or I’d be with him," Christina testified, according to the Times. "He beat me and told me it was my fault my brother was dead." She noted that her father had essentially put her in charge of feeding her brother and keeping him locked up in a dog cage in their home.
In August, Riley Choate filed for a divorce from Kubina while they remain held without bond in the Lake County Jail.
Christian's body was found buried under a thin layer of concrete on May near the couple's former home in a mobile home park in Gary, Indiana. The boy is believed to have died in April of 2009, after being kept locked in a three-foot-high dog cage for most of the last year of his life. He was reportedly only let out of the cage to eat and use the bathroom. His stepmother, Kubina, took him out of school and said he was being homeschooled. His sister was reportedly moved to Kentucky by her father, Riley, and sworn to secrecy about what she witnessed.
A DCS report noted that Kubina's "homeschooling" of Christian consisted of her giving the boy paper and telling him write on assignments such as "Why do you still want to see your mom? Why can't you let the past go? What does it mean to be part of a family?"
The original autopsy of Christian's body determined his cause of death to be blunt force trauma, which caused internal bleeding and a skull fracture.