The mother of a Northern Virginia baby has been charged with her child’s death, after she had put her baby face-down for a nap, Prince William County police said Monday.
Four-month-old Jahari Jones died in 2014. His mother, Candice Christa Semidey, fed Jahara and wrapped him in a blanket on November 8, before putting him to bed.
She put her son face down for a nap on a makeshift bed that consisted of a cushion and a blanket, before going to sleep herself. When Semidey woke, she could not wake her son. Unable to move and lying with his face towards the blanket, the baby had suffocated. Emergency services pronounced him dead at the family home.
A police spokesman, Jonathan Perok, said Semidey, 25, did not intentionally kill her son. But prosecutors concluded that her treatment of Jahari was negligent. They charged Semidey with felony murder, which refers to a death that takes place while a person is committing a felony. In this case, that felony was child neglect.
Semidey was arrested on January 19, 2015, and she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child neglect. She was sentenced to a suspended prison term of five years, but she won’t serve prison time if she completes three years of probation.
In a similar case, the parents of nine-month-old Avarice Alexander were charged with felony child neglect in late 2014. Also residents of Prince William county, 21-year old Adam Jerell Vince Alexander and Jasmyne Alexandria Alexander had put their daughter to bed on the night of October 5, and did not check on her for 16 hours.
Top Comments
Unless there is more to the first case then is described here it seems harsh to receive a sentence for this when it seems like an innocent mistake.
In regards to the second case that sounds a little more suss. And why on earth would parents call their child Avarice, as it essentially means greed!
Good grief! @naming a child "Avarice". The parents not to be put off by lists of Deadly Sins?.
I don't know anout that suspended senrptence. The Judge's comments and reasons aren't quoted. Was she aware of sleep posture risks, and that she had to turn the baby? Or was she simply lazy and neglectful, and didn't care? Unable to cope? Uneducated? Callous? So many similar stories around don't tell us the important stuff.