By Marjorie Hernandez
Sickening video shows Las Vegas cops rescuing young children who were allegedly battered, starved and put in cages by their parents.
One of the older children was beaten so badly that his father, Travis Doss, told Las Vegas Metropolitan Police he believed the 11-year-old was already dead, according to court transcripts obtained by TV station 8NewsNow.
The child said he was forced to share what little food he had with his siblings and that he had not eaten for days, a detective on the case recalled.
“He kept saying that he was always hungry and that’s why he stole, and then he said, ‘It’s food that’s in the trash, so how is that even stealing?’ ” the detective said, according to a grand-jury transcript.
“And he kept saying that he needed big food because he was a big boy now and that he would have to share one large fry from McDonald’s with like all six kids and just that he was never really fed and that’s why he stole,” the cop recounted.
The detective told the jury that the child said he was locked in the cage “all day, every day.”
Doss, who is the father to seven children, was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on 40 charges including child abuse, according to court records viewed by The Post.
The disturbing cop body-cam footage initially shows officers entering the tiny one-bedroom apartment where they found six kids — ages 2 to 11 — alone with two dogs. Two of the children, the 11-year old boy and his 9-year old brother, were crouched inside a padlocked cage normally used for pets.
Cops said the 11-year old boy had “two black eyes that were swollen shut, multiple marks and bruises all over his body, and he was emaciated.”
The child told police his father had beaten him with cords, belts and a pan.
Amanda Stamper, who is the biological mother of the 2-year-old child and stepmother to the others, also was indicted and faces seven counts of child abuse.
LVMPD body-cam footage showed the children initially refused to open the door to cops for 15 minutes because the kids were instructed not to open the door for strangers.
“We’re not hurt, we’re fine,” said one of the children in the video.
After a maintenance worker eventually convinced the child to open the door, cops found the children in the apartment with dogs.
In the video, the 11-year-old child said of his dad, “He hit my face in the cage because I was squished up trying to get out of the cage because I didn’t do anything and I was freaking out.”
One of the officers could be heard consoling a child, telling him, “You’re not a bad kid, this is just really a crappy situation. And we’re going to get you some help. This is not going to happen again.”
Doss allegedly told police he had “no choice” when asked why he placed the children in the cage.
In his Instagram, Doss, who is a rapper who goes by the name “Trap Montana,” is seen rapping inside exotic cars, mansions and casinos on the famed Las Vegas Strip.
In posts from September 2020, he is seen with his children enjoying a beach day in Santa Monica, Calif. Another post from June 2019 shows Doss fishing with four of the children and Stamper smiling in the background.
Clark County prosecutors said Stamper was a prostitute working under Doss, adding that she knew her partner was abusing the children.
Stamper’s public defender said the mother also was a victim of Doss’s abuse. Stamper’s Instagram shows several provocative pictures of her in the nude and shots of her newborn baby from two years ago.
“If she had done anything, she would’ve been subjected to serious, serious abuse,” Stamper’s public defender said in June.
