GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Authorities released the warrants for the woman charged with murder after an 8-year-old missing girl was found dead.
Gwinnett County Police said Nicole Amari Hall was found dead Tuesday around 10:45 a.m. Her mother, Brittany Hall, has been charged with concealing her death while her partner, Celeste Owens, is charged with felony murder.
Warrants for Owens allege that Amari was hit in the head several times on Friday, Nov. 19 and that Owens did "conceal the death of Amari Hall by placing her in trash bags and dumping her body."
Police said the child, who has autism, was reported missing early Sunday morning at the HomeTowne Studios located at 7049 Jimmy Carter Boulevard in the Peachtree Corners area. She and her mother had been staying at the hotel for nearly three months.
On Tuesday, Gwinnett Police Chief J.D. McClure said they compared what they were told by the mom and Owens with the evidence in the case and determined their statements were false.
"At that point our investigation transitioned from a missing person case to indeed a homicide case," McClure said.
Outside of being charged with issuing false statements, Owens is facing cruelty to children charges stemming from several other incidents with different minors. Police said many of these incidents were caught on video and discovered by detectives in the search for Amari when they believed she was still missing.
The warrant claimed that back in July, Owens "walked over to one child and open hand slapped the victim in the front of her face causing her head to whip back quickly." She's also accused of "walking over to a boy ... tightening a cloth around the victim's eyes then slapping the victim and kicking him on the ground."
In August the warrants describe Owens as "stomping on another child's back with her foot and then kicking (her) in the back moving her across the room."
Warrants also describe incidents where Hall allegedly kicked and punched her children and in one instance "the victim was laying on the floor and the defendant and mother of the victim stood over her and used a belt or cord and whipped the victim on her legs." Another warrant claims Hall "walked over to the victim and slapped the victim 11 times on the back, the incident was video recorded."
The two other children who were with Hall and Owens are now in the custody of DFCS and both Hall and Owens remain in jail.