LAS VEGAS, NV – Las Vegas rapper Trap Montana has been arrested and charged with beating and starving his own kids, with a harrowing video showing them being locked in cages.
Video and court documents obtained by 8NewsNow show Las Vegas Metro Police entering the home of Montana (real name Travis Doss) and speaking with the children, one of whom was beaten so badly that Montana allegedly told police he already believed the 11-year-old to be dead.
Another child told police he was forced to share his scrapes of food with his five siblings, who told police it had been days since they’d eaten.
“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 added.
The aspiring rapper was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month on 40 charges including child abuse, according to court records obtained by The New York Post.
The bodycam footage showed officers entering the tiny, one-bedroom apartment where they found six kids from 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, with the older boy’s eyes “swollen shut” from being so badly beaten. He was also reportedly “emaciated” from being starved.
Trap Montana’s girlfriend, Amanda Stamper, was also arrested and charged with seven counts of child abuse. She was allegedly a prostitute working under the rapper, and served as the biological mother of the 2-year-old child and stepmother to the others.
The bodycam footage also showed the children initially refused to open the door to cops for 15 minutes because they were instructed not to open the door for strangers. One of the kids initially denied that anything was wrong.
When asked why he tormented his children, Montana said he had “no choice.”