Ohio mom leaves her young special-needs children home alone to go on Miami vacation — with friend getting liposuction



An Ohio mother was convicted of abandoning her three young children — two of whom have special needs — to go on a Florida vacation to be with her friend who was getting liposuction surgery.

On Feb. 22, a Westlake City Schools special education teacher notified police that one of her students — a 7-year-old girl — informed her that she had been left home alone with her twin sister and her 10-year-old sister. The special education teacher requested a welfare check from police, according to newly released audio.

'Do you remember why she was in Miami? Her friend needed liposuction surgery.'

On the same day, police conducted a welfare check on the apartment in Westlake – roughly 15 miles west of Cleveland.

Officers said the children were alone and the apartment was in complete "disarray."

Citing police, WKYC reported that the apartment was "in shambles" and "there was clothing, food, trash, and an unknown liquid covering the floor." The officer noted there was "furniture stacked up in a corner, storage boxes stacked in another corner, and the apartment itself smelled of old food and body odor."

“Garbage, bins, and bags were strewn all over the floor,” court records state, according to the Independent.

According to court documents, the children told police they did not have a cellphone to contact their mother but had been communicating with her through Nest cameras located around the unit and FaceTime on a MacBook tablet.

Investigators determined that the mother — Dominique Knowles — had abandoned her children to go on vacation in Miami.

The children's grandmother purportedly told police Knowles had not left the state, and Knowles allegedly told a detective she was not out of state.

Westlake Law Director Michael Maloney determined that Knowles had traveled to Miami a day before police conducted the welfare check.

Investigators used subpoenaed cellphone records to determine that Knowles made or received 50 calls in the greater Miami area from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, according to court documents.

During a hearing Wednesday, a prosecutor informed the judge: “Do you remember why she was in Miami? Her friend needed liposuction surgery.”

When arrested, Knowles allegedly told police, “My kids are allowed to be here by themselves.”

The arresting officer allegedly responded, “Not when you have two special-needs kids.”

Knowles told the courtroom Wednesday, "I understand what I did was wrong, and this absolutely would never happen again. I did believe my kids were able to dress themselves and get themselves to school. I wouldn’t dare let anything happen to my kids. I wish I could go back and change the circumstances."

Despite her plea, Knowles was found guilty of two counts of child endangerment — a first-degree misdemeanor that can be punishable by six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 per count.

However, Knowles was sentenced to five years of probation and 360 days of house arrest, ordered to attend a parenting class and mental health counseling, and given $800 in fines. Knowles will be allowed to leave house arrest to go to work.

Judge Joseph Burke of the Rocky River Municipal Court declared, "Something bad could’ve happened to the children, they could have started a fire in the apartment, they could have hurt themselves or suffered a medical emergency, or they could have been taken by a stranger. But most of all, they needed their mother to be there and parent them and not ... by remote cameras from Florida."

Burke noted, "I don’t want to further victimize your daughters by separating you from them. It is now time for you to become the mother that your daughters deserve, need, and require."

Blaze News reported in February that an Ohio mother left her 16-month-old daughter alone in a filthy playpen at home for 10 days while she went on vacation in Puerto Rico.

Kristel Candelario, 32, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and child endangerment.

In March, Candelario was sentenced to life without parole in what the judge described as the "ultimate act of betrayal."

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Ohio mother sentenced to prison for death of 4-year-old daughter who was fed Mountain Dew in baby bottle, causing her teeth to rot



An Ohio mother has been sentenced to prison after her 4-year-old diabetic daughter died from being mainly fed a diet of baby bottles filled with Mountain Dew.

Tamara Banks, 41, was sentenced on Friday to at least nine years in prison for the young girl's death and up to 13 and a half years. Banks, of Clermont County, had pleaded guilty in March to involuntary manslaughter for the death of her daughter – Karmity Hoeb.

Karmity's father, 53-year-old Christopher Hoeb, also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He is set to be sentenced in June.

Karmity was found unresponsive on Jan. 21, 2022. The couple called 911 and the girl was rushed to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The 4-year-old girl was declared to be brain dead and died four days later after being taken off life support.

Karmity died in 2022 of a diabetes-related brain injury.

The Clermont County coroner determined the girl's cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis. Prosecutors said the girl's condition "was left undiagnosed and untreated over a long period of time."

Dr. Chris Peltier – President of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics – told WCPO-TV, "Diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, is an extreme complication of untreated diabetes."

Prosecutors claimed Banks and Hoeb mostly fed their daughter a baby bottle that was filled with baby formula and Mountain Dew soda. Prosecutors noted that the 4-year-old girl should have been weaned off bottles long before her death.

A 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew reportedly contains 77 grams of sugar.

WXIX-TV previously reported the girl's teeth had rotted out and she had almost none left.

Karmity suffered from a "serious medical issue" days before her death, but her parents failed to call for help or take her to the hospital, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Karmity suffered neglect, child abuse, denied proper nutrition, lacked medical care, and there was no evidence that she had been taken to a dentist in her short life.

Clermont County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Clay Tharp told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "This is one of the most tragic cases I have ever encountered."

Tharp also pointed out, "This child did not have to die."

Our guardian angel now

Karmity – nicknamed "Boogie" – "loved to be silly" and "loved looking at herself in the mirror because she knew how beautiful and special she was."

"Each day she woke up full of joy and love," the girl's obituary read. "Every day she was playing with her Mickey buddies and racing her cars. She touched everyone that ever laid eyes on her or spent any time with her. She will always be remembered as our daughter, our guardian angel now."

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Texas mother arrested for abandoning small children so she could go on Caribbean cruise vacation: Police



A Texas mother was arrested last week for abandoning her two small children so that she could go on a Caribbean cruise vacation, according to police.

On Thursday, 29-year-old Lakesha Woods Williams was arrested on two charges of child endangerment.

Williams is alleged to have left her 6-year-old and 8-year-old children alone in her high-rise apartment in the Memorial neighborhood of Houston. Police say the mother left her kids alone at home for six days as she took a Caribbean cruise vacation.

Williams abandoned her children so that she could fly to Miami and then vacation on a cruise ship that traveled to Puerto Rico.

Police conducted a welfare check on the children on April 9, and found the abandoned children. The small children informed law enforcement that their mother had left them alone to go on a Caribbean cruise.

ABC Houston affiliate KTRK-TV reported that the apartment unit was in disarray, had trash and leftover food strewn about, and there was a "potent" smell of urine.

Paramedics and Child Protective Services were summoned to the home to check on the health of the children. Firefighters said the children "were in good health and not malnourished."

Investigators believe that no adults checked in on the small children during the six days.

The mother reportedly left a camera on inside the apartment home to monitor her unsupervised children.

Both children were taken out of the home and released to their aunt.

Williams reportedly lied about her identity to police when questioned.

The criminal complaint stated, "Deputies tried contacting the Defendant to make the scene, but she was not cooperating and was switching up her story on her whereabouts."

Harris County Constable Precinct 5 said in a statement on Facebook, "We are still putting together the facts and circumstances of how these children were left alone for several days, but the important thing is they are safe now and those responsible should be held accountable for leaving these kids in an unsafe situation."

Keegan Childers, the chief prosecutor of the 209th District Court, said: "These children were left unattended for many days and put in harm's way. For them to provide for themselves, feed themselves, take care of themselves, as well as, what if somebody breaks in? What if there's a bad neighbor? Any number of horror, nightmare scenarios that could come up."

Williams was booked into the Harris County Detention Facility the day after she returned to her apartment from her cruise vacation.

Her bond is set at $25,000.

Williams is scheduled to be in court on Monday, according to records.

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Houston mother charged with abandoning her children to go on cruise www.youtube.com

21-year-old mother sentenced to life in prison for 'heinous' killing of daughter by repeatedly slamming newborn on concrete



A Mississippi mother was sentenced to life in prison for killing her daughter by repeatedly slamming her newborn on the concrete.

The Rankin County District Attorney's Office initially sought the death penalty for Makaylia Shaylynn Jolley. The district attorney offered the mother who killed her baby daughter a deal for her to plead guilty to capital murder and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole rather than go to trial, where the state would seek the death penalty.

According to WLBT, "One reason for the decision to offer the plea was to prevent Rankin County jurors, law enforcement officials, witnesses, and family members from having to relive what they say was one of the most heinous crimes they worked on."

Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman said, “Law enforcement, the EMTs, the firefighters, there were innocent people ... the apartment owner witnessed it. The victim’s grandmother witnessed it. A truck driver witnessed it. A sweet lady who was going to call on a patient and just happened to be dropping by saw these terrible things. I don’t believe you can ever get those images out of your mind.”

Jolley accepted the plea deal, and she pleaded guilty to capital murder.

On Monday, Rankin County Circuit Judge Steve Ratcliff sentenced Jolley to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of her 2-month-old daughter named Khalysie Lashay Jolley.

District Attorney Bramlett stated, “This is an unexplainable and heinous crime against an innocent child."

"The very woman who was supposed to love and support Khalysie is the one who chose drugs over her children and caused Khalysie’s death," Bramlett said. "Makaylia Jolley will die in prison where she belongs for committing these crimes against her daughter.”

On the afternoon of May 12, 2022, witnesses contacted police to report that Jolley grabbed her baby by the ankles and slammed the newborn onto the concrete several times in Pearl, Mississippi. As Blaze News previously reported, when police arrived at the crime scene, bystanders informed law enforcement that the mother slammed the baby down on the pavement and left her lying in the road.

Newman said, “This was an innocent 7-week-old baby. Makaylia Jolley took Khalysie by the ankles, slammed her into the pavement multiple times and then left her there.”

Jolley ran off into nearby woods, where she was later taken into custody by police.

Law enforcement noted that during an interview, Jolley acknowledged that she injured her baby, but she didn’t know why she did it. Jolley claimed that repeatedly slamming her daughter on the concrete was an accident.

The newborn baby suffered extensive skull fractures, brain swelling, abrasions, hemorrhages to her eyes, an elbow fracture, a thumb fracture, and brain bleeding.

The baby was rushed to the hospital, but died a few days later.

Mississippi woman sentenced to life in murder of 7-week-old daughter www.youtube.com

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Police: 4-year-old girl dead after mom, grandmother forced her to drink bottle of whiskey. She had a .680 blood alcohol content when officers arrived.



A mother and grandmother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder after allegedly forcing a 4-year-old girl to drink more than half a bottle of whisky, police said Friday.

The tragedy reportedly unfolded early Thursday morning inside an East Baton Rouge home when officers responded to reports of an unresponsive child, later identified as China Record, according to WAFB-TV.

In an arrest report, officers claimed that upon their arrival, they found the young girl with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .680 — or more than eight times the legal limit at which adults are considered too intoxicated to drive.

Firefighters and other emergency medical responders reportedly attempted to revive the young girl at the scene but were unsuccessful. Unsurprisingly, the local coroner's office soon determined the girl's cause of death to be acute alcohol poisoning.

Officers immediately arrested the child’s grandmother, 53-year-old Roxanne Record, and the victim’s mother, 28-year-old Kadjah Record and the pair is currently being held at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

While speaking with the suspects following the incident, investigators reportedly learned that the victim’s grandmother discovered China sipping out of a bottle of whisky that had been on the counter and became angry. As an alleged punishment, she then forced the girl to drink the rest of the bottle while the mother watched.

Investigators added that the bottle was possibly more than half full at the time and that the young girl was made to drink the alcohol while on her knees in the hallway. China's mother was allegedly present during the incident but failed to prevent her mother from poisoning the child.

The Advocate reported that, according to arrest documents, the child's mother was "present and failed to stop" her mother "from providing the alcohol" and later placed the unresponsive child in a bathtub.

The alcohol consumed by the child was reportedly Canadian Mist, an 80 proof whisky, the outlet added, noting that whisky at 80 proof is 40% alcohol.

Upon being taken into custody, the grandmother, Roxanne Record, reportedly stated that "she messed up" and "wanted to take full responsibility" for the child’s death, adding that "this went too far" and "she ruined everyone’s lives."

In a statement to WAFB-TV, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services said they are "devastated to hear the news of this child's death" but noted that they are prevented by state law from offering further comment on the case.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Mom arrested after posing as 13-year-old daughter, sneaking into middle school as part of 'social experiment' to expose security flaws



A mother in Texas was arrested last week after posing as her 13-year-old daughter and sneaking into a local middle school as part of an alleged effort to expose security flaws at schools.

What happened?

Casey Garcia, 30, was booked last Tuesday on charges of criminal trespass and tampering with government records for impersonating her daughter and infiltrating the San Elizario Independent School District, the El Paso Times reported.

According to court records, she is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 105 pounds.

The mother, who documented her "social experiment" and later posted it on social media, allegedly made it all the way to seventh period before she was noticed.

Going to school as my 13yr old daughter (Middle School edition) youtu.be

In a video posted on YouTube, Garcia shows how she used skin tanner and hair dye in order to look more like her daughter.

She then reportedly breached security at the school by using her daughter's ID number and reporting that she had signed in. She allegedly wasn't asked to show a physical ID card. After that, she said hello to the principal and another faculty member and then attended her daughter's classes.

In another YouTube video, titled, "Why I posed as my 13 year old daughter. A raw but real answer," Garcia complained that throughout the day teachers were more concerned about her phone being out than they were about her true identity.

"I think the deal breaker for me was actually walking in and posing as a seventh-grader. I mean, I'm no spring chicken, but it wasn't hard. And I made it to all seven periods, until the last teacher, she was female, and she said, 'Julie, can you stay after class?' And I said absolutely. She looked at me and she [said], 'You're not Julie.'"

"No, I'm not," Garcia recalled replying. "I took off my mask, I took off my glasses, and I said, 'No, I'm not Julie. I'm Julie's mom.'"

Why I posed as my 13 year old daughter. A raw but real answer. www.youtube.com

What else?

Garcia defended her actions by claiming she did it to show just how flawed security systems at schools can be. She added that she hopes her actions could help prevent future school shootings.

"I'm telling you right now, we need better security at our schools. This is what I tried to prove," she explained, adding, "I kind of feel like I proved it."

"I think we that need metal detectors. I don't think that backpacks are a good idea," Garcia later suggested. "I didn't do this for any other reason but to prove a point."

In response to critics who called her plan "nuts," she said, "Absolutely, it's nuts, because you don't understand my integrity, you don't understand why I did it or if there was a real reason or if there wasn't."

Mother, stepfather arrested in connection to death of severely disabled 15-year-old son



Police in Illinois arrested the mother and stepfather of a severely disabled 15-year-old boy who died last November, allegedly as a result of health complications from physical neglect.

What are the details?

On Monday, 34-year-old Jennifer Keim was arrested on a first-degree murder charge, and on the following day, her husband, 32-year-old Justin Keim, was arrested on a felony charge of criminal abuse or neglect of a disabled person, the Moline Police Department stated in a press release.

In the release, police recalled that in early November, officers responded to an area hospital where the boy had been transported to be treated for numerous ailments. Medical staff found the child to be "extremely dehydrated, emaciated and [with] severe open wounds that had not been properly treated."

Despite the best efforts of medical staff, the boy went into cardiopulmonary arrest and was pronounced dead shortly after.

The incident kickstarted a months-long investigation by the Rock Island County Coroner's Office, the Moline Police Department, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that "included numerous interviews, consultations with medical professionals and an in-depth examination of the child's medical records and past medical treatment."

The inquiries revealed a "consistent pattern of medical and physical neglect, which led to the child's death," the release stated.

The county coroner's office declared the child's manner of death to be complications from chronic malnutrition and dehydration due to underlying physical neglect.

Jennifer Keim is now being held in Rock Island County Jail on $2 million bond. Her husband is being held on $500,000 bond. Jennifer's next court date is reportedly set for April 6.

What else?

Following her arrest, friends of Jennifer spoke to local news outlet Quad-City Times in her defense. One childhood friend, Christa Axnix, recalled how diligently Keim worked to care for her son, J.J., who was born with severe cerebral palsy.

"I know this family intimately," she said. "Everyone who knows Jennifer knows the hard work and dedication she put into keeping J.J. alive. She spent holidays alone with him in the hospital in Peoria more than one Christmas when he had pneumonia."

Two of Jennifer's neighbors, Charles and Chanea Drummond, added that they had "never seen her do anything neglectful of any of her kids" and don't believe that she would have intentionally harmed her disabled son.

In response, Rock Island County State's Attorney Dora Villarreal indicated she was surprised to hear that some were defending Keim based on the condition of the child at the time of his death. She noted that despite being 15 years of age, the boy weighed just 38 pounds when he died.

"It was a very disturbing case for law enforcement and for personnel from my office," Villarreal said.