Janet Irvin, 37, was arrested Tuesday morning on charges related to the Oct. 30 death of 15-year-old Quawan Charles.

The woman accused of failure to report a missing child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in the wake of the death of 15-year-old Quawan Charles had her bond reduced today, but not as far as her defense attorney requested.

Janet Irvin appeared in 16th Judicial District Court before Judge Anthony Saleme for a motions hearing Tuesday morning. Her attorney, Alfred Boustany, requested that Irvin’s bond be reduced from $400,000 — $300,000 on the failure to report charge and $100,000 on the contributing charge — to $50,000 total. 

Irvin, seated in an orange jail jumpsuit and manacled at the wrists and ankles, sat quietly through the proceeding as Boustany presented arguments in favor of her bond reduction, including a letter from her former employer saying that she could be rehired if released.

Boustany also presented a single witness, Irvin’s boyfriend Tyler LeGros, to show that she would have a place to live if allowed out on bail. 

LeGros also said he would serve as a third-party monitor, reporting any infractions if Irvin did not abide by the terms of her bond.

Irvin was arrested on Feb. 9.  Charles went missing on Oct. 30. His body was found in a ditch alongside a cane field near her home in Loreauville four days later.

Irvin drove her son to Baldwin to pick Charles up that day, then drove the two teens to her home. Six hours later, St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office dispatchers handled a call from Charles’ mother, Roxanne Nelson, saying that her son was missing. 

According to recordings Haley and Associates, the attorneys representing the Charles family, had made during their investigation, Irvin’s son, 17, says that Charles smoked marijuana that Friday afternoon. In another recording the attorneys released in December, they say Irvin admitted that she should have done more to locate Charles after he disappeared from her home on Oct. 30.

“Yes, I should have called the cops. I should have went further,” Irvin says on the audio recording.

According to both the official and private preliminary autopsy reports, Charles drowned that Friday night in a drainage ditch alongside a cane field. 

Because Charles died after she failed to report him missing for four days, Irvin could be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than two years nor more than fifty years without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, and fined not more than $50,000 on that count. Because the failure to report is a felony count, it also raises the sentencing guideline for the contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge to a maximum of $1,000 fine or imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or both.

Saleme reduced the bond to $90,000 total, $75,000 on the failure to report charge and $15,000 on the contributing to the delinquency of a minor count. As of deadline Tuesday evening, the Iberia Parish Jail online database showed Irvin was still being held pending bond. Saleme stipulated that Irvin not be released on bond until after she is fitted with an ankle monitoring bracelet as one of the conditions of her release.