Steven Kittle, on the left, Lindsey Pratt, center, and Robin Kittle, on the right. (Payne County Sheriff’s Office)
A veritable house of filth and horrors was discovered in Oklahoma. Now, three adults are facing child neglect and sexual assault charges.
Steven Zackariah Kittle, 35, was arrested in March on one count of child sexual abuse and recently charged with two counts of child neglect, according to Payne County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime.
In late June, his wife, Lindsey Nichole Pratt, 26, and his mother, Robin Jean Kittle, 59, were each arrested on three counts of child neglect. County court records also show several extant civil court cases between the defendants and orders of protection filed by the defendants against one another — and on behalf of multiple minor children against the husband and wife.
The alleged crimes that occurred inside the residence in Stillwater — and the fetid state of affairs inside – are detailed in body-worn camera footage obtained by Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate KFOR and a recently-filed affidavit obtained by Cushing-based radio station KUSH.
According to the Stillwater Police Department, Steven Kittle admitted during an interview with two detectives that he sexually assaulted the 4-year-old girl while the 1-year-old boy watched, on multiple occasions, in January.
Officers with the SPD were originally investigating the child sexual assault claim against Steven Kittle. That investigation led an SPD officer and a state child welfare agent to visit the trailer where the family lived. There, authorities said they found three children, three adults, six dogs, and three cats living in wretched squalor.
“The foul odor inside was unbearable,” Stillwater Police Detective Sgt. Sherae LeJeune wrote in the affidavit. “The air was thick and musty which made breathing difficult. We could not complete the walk-through without taking breaks outside for fresh air. I noticed there actually was carpet in the living room. It was saturated with so much urine and feces and walked all over that it was smashed down to a hard surface. My boots stuck to the flooring.”
“It was impossible to avoid stepping in dog feces throughout the home,” the affidavit continues. “There was old and fresh feces everywhere. There were several sticky fly traps hanging from the ceilings which were covered with bugs. I noticed there were bags of food hanging from the ceiling as well, which I later learned was to keep rodents and bugs from getting to it.”
In the bodycam footage, Robin Kittle reportedly can be heard complaining about officers tearing up the carpet.
“Is this what you’re talking about, cleaning up the carpet?” the officer reportedly replies. “I mean, there’s poop everywhere.”
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At the time of the initial visit, police allege an 18-month-old girl’s “hands were covered with dried feces which she rubbed in her hair and eyes,” according to court documents obtained by KFOR. Additionally, that same girl’s “breathing was labored and her nose was running.”
More feces was found on the walls of a bedroom shared by a 4-year-old-girl and 1-year-old boy, police wrote.
“There were no toys in the room,” the affidavit says. “The walls were smeared with feces. It was obvious the children smeared the feces because of the size of the handprints. Some of the smears reached up to the ceiling on the west wall.”
And it was in that room, police allege, that the two older children were regularly locked up in order to stop them from eating food from the refrigerator and to keep them away from the general living conditions of the rest of the house, which included piles of junk from dumpster dives, the compiled detritus of hoarding, and free-roaming animals.
“The kids room right here, hand prints of s— all over the entire room,” one of the officers can be heard saying in the footage obtained by the TV station. “Your feet just stick to all the s— in there.”
Also in the bedroom were uncovered nails sticking out of a bed frame, police said.
“I later learned that there used to be a bunk bed along that wall,” the sergeant wrote in her affidavit. Apparently Steven Kittle became incensed after the boy jumped off the bunk bed and ripped it out. “In the southwest corner [of the children’s bedroom], there was a remarkable amount of rodent feces in a three-square foot area.”
Throughout the house, police allege, dead flies were seen in fly traps. Roaches also allegedly scurried around everywhere.
The children were taken into custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
“Their social and verbal skills were lacking for their ages,” the sergeant wrote in her affidavit, saying the two older children “communicated by pointing and grunting.”
“They still used pull-ups and were not potty-trained due to no guidance and inconsistent access to a bathroom,” the affidavit went on. “They showed signs of nutritional deficiencies and food scarcity. [The youngest child] had deformities in both legs and a dead roach was removed from her ear canal.”
Steven Kittle is currently detained on $150,000 bond. He has a preliminary hearing slated for Aug. 31.
The defendant’s wife and mother are each detained on $30,000. Their next court appearances are slated for July 6.
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