COEUR d’ALENE — A First District judge ruled that a Post Falls couple accused of beating and starving a 6-year-old boy will be tried together, but one of the charges will be peeled away into a separate case.

After hearing arguments Monday afternoon in Coeur d’Alene, District Judge Scott Wayman said he saw no reason to not join the cases of Joy Tamika Anderson, 30, and Melvin Bledsoe, 37, a Post Falls couple accused of beating Bledsoe’s 6-year-old son, tying him to a bed, stepping on him and starving him.

The couple, who reportedly are half-siblings, have pleaded not guilty to charges of injury to a child and incest, both felonies. Injury to a child carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years, and incest can carry a sentence of up to life behind bars.

After ruling the couple will stand trial together for the injury to child charge, Wayman split the incest charges into a seperate case.

Defense attorney Jerri Lynn Brooks said because incest is an inflammatory topic, separating the charges would prevent prejudice by a jury.

“Incest is a highly taboo subject in our society,” Brooks said. “It will make the jury go ballistic.”

The charges, she said, “ … Having two of them in the same trial,” not the evidence, would influence the jury.

According to court records, the 6-year-old, who lived with the couple, was found to be suffering from a split pancreas when he was examined by physicians last autumn. The injury is usually caused by a great amount of force, according to a report in court records. Post Falls Police investigators said the couple didn’t immediately seek medical attention for the injury, although the boy was in a lot of pain and suffered bloating from fluids seeping into his body cavity.

The couple told police the child probably sustained the injuries from falling on rocky ground, or off his bicycle.

Life-saving surgery was performed at Sacred Heart Medical Center, and a government caregiver told police the child’s injuries were among the worst of the abuse cases she had witnessed, according to prosecutors.

Although Anderson and Bledsoe were charged seperately, deputy prosecutor Rebecca Perez argued Monday that because the two cases are indelibly intertwined, they should be joined into one case for the sake of economy.

Perez said aside from some disparity in the language, the facts of the cases are the same.

“Judicial economy … should be considered here,” Perez said. “We have to get the cases to trial.”

Prosecutors estimated a trial in each case would take up to three weeks.

“We’d be doing the exact same thing twice,” Perez said. “It’s the same evidence … nothing would be different.”

Kootenai County Public Defender Anne Taylor, who represents Bledsoe, said the antagonism between the defendants — they have both blamed each other — as well as the difficulty in cross-examining one or the other should prevent the cases from being joined.

Taylor also argued to separate the incest and child injury charges. After Wayman ruled for a combined trial, Taylor said she had planned to file a motion for the judge to keep charges against the defendants separate.

“I absolutely intended to file a motion to sever counts one and two, and to sever what the court joined here today,” Taylor said.

Shackled and wearing orange jumpers, Bledsoe and Anderson appeared together at Monday’s hearing. Bledsoe is being held in the Kootenai County Jail on a $200,000 bond and Anderson’s bond is $75,000.

Prosecutors asked for the judge to set the combined trial soon, but Wayman said it would take time to find a three-week block on his calendar.

“I will do it when I find a spot to do it,” Wayman said. “We won’t be setting it for trial next week, that much I know.”