Suspect in child’s death denies staging cover-up

Trevor Carter can't go a day without weeping.

He often cries two or three times a day and is now on medication to help with his depression.

He claims a jailhouse gang threatened his life and believes he'll be killed if authorities send him to state prison.

Carter is behind bars at the North Las Vegas jail, where he is facing charges that he killed his girlfriend's 4-year-old son and then staged a car accident to cover up the crime.

Speaking by telephone from the jail on Monday, Carter said he never killed the boy or schemed to mislead police. He admits he lied to police about how his girlfriend's son, Trenton Quick, was injured, but maintains he wasn't responsible for the boy's death. He said he loved his girlfriend's son as if he were his own.

"It's the worst experience I've ever had. I'm 21 years old and never thought I would go through the pain of losing a child," he said.

Authorities take a different view.

Police said Carter killed Trenton on Dec. 18 and then tried to "manufacture" a car accident in the desert area near the Las Vegas Beltway and Losee Road to hide the real cause of death.

The mother of the child, Amber Scott, 24, is facing child neglect and abuse charges.

During a preliminary hearing on April 11, police officers testified that there wasn't any evidence that Carter lost control of his vehicle in the desert. One officer said Carter acted suspiciously at the scene of the crash and told police he waited an hour after the crash before calling police. He later changed his story and said he waited about 30 minutes, the officer said.

Another officer testified that Scott asked her, "Did he (Carter) kill my baby?" after she learned that Trenton died.

Carter said Trenton injured himself by falling off a bunk bed and onto a toy box but didn't appear seriously hurt. After he fell, Trenton cried for less than 30 seconds then brushed his teeth and drank a soda, he said.

Carter then took Trenton and the boy's 3-year-old sister out to the desert with him to go target shooting. After he was done shooting, he noticed that Trenton had blood coming out of his mouth. Carter then sped out of the desert area and headed to the nearest hospital but crashed his car into a ravine, he said.

He said he couldn't call police immediately after the crash because his cell phone didn't work in the desert. Carter said he initially told police that Trenton died from the car crash. He now says he told police this because he was scared and intimidated by the police.

"I was crying. I was panicked. I was in a state of shock," he said.

A medical examiner who testified during the April hearing said Trenton had more than 35 injuries on his body, including bruises that predated his Dec. 18 death. The coroner determined that Trenton died from blunt force trauma to his abdomen. He called the death a homicide.

Carter, however, said he had only spanked Scott's children and never beat them. He said the children would sometimes hit each other or would get injured through typical horsing around. But there "wasn't a bunch of child abuse," he said.

Carter is now facing a hearing at the end of April to determine if there is enough evidence to send him to trial.

He said he spends 23 hours a day in an isolation cell at the jail and spends his time reading.

Carter said wants people to believe that he didn't kill Trenton even though authorities are charging him with murder.

"I'm not a monster. Those children -- they're my entire life," he said.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.