Maliyah Bass' biological father reacts to mother's arrest

Maliyah Bass’ father speaks as new details emerge about her death

FOX 26 spoke with Maliyah Bass' father as disturbing, new details emerge about the two-year-old's death.

HOUSTON - The biological father of Maliyah Bass says the 2-year-old's mother, Sahara Ervin, did not show up to her funeral despite inviting her and her boyfriend.

Ervin and her boyfriend, Travion Thompson, are charged in the toddler's death. Both are charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence of a corpse.

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"It don't matter if you was on drugs, it don't matter if you was on booze," said Bass directing himself at Ervin. "If you was going through something that doesn't give you the right to take your anger on a child. So, you deserve to rot in jail. You don't deserve to get out. You deserve life for killing that baby -- you and that man."

Bass says he became suspicious when Ervin stopped allowing him to see Maliyah.

"She just ex-ed me out of the picture after she got the dude," he told FOX 26.

Maliyah 'Tootie' Bass

According to court documents, Maliyah was beaten. A day after she was reported missing, her body was later found in Brays Bayou -- 18 miles away from where she lived.

During Thompson's probable cause hearing, prosecutors revealed he and Ervin threw Maliyah's body in a storm drain.

Ervin did not appear in court but a judge set her bond at $100,000 for injury to a child and $75,000 for tampering with evidence.

Thompson's bond was set at $150,000 for both charges. However, prosecutors motioned for no bond because of his lengthy criminal history including multiple arrests for assault.

In 2019, he was sentenced to five years of deferred adjudication for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Court records state he violated multiple terms of his community supervision since January but he remained free.

Texas Child Protective Services tells FOX 26, the agency didn't have a history with Ervin or Maliyah.

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Bass believes before Maliyah was beaten, she was probably crying out for him.

"She probably wanted me and she couldn't get to me," he said. "You don't know what was going through the baby's head and you just start beating on her, and put her in a closet?"

Ervin and Thompson are both due back in court on Thursday.