Charges: Mother Drowned Her 6-Year-Old Girl After Arguing With Boyfriend
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 25-year-old St. Paul mother is accused of drowning her 6-year-old daughter after an argument with her boyfriend Tuesday morning.
On Dec. 23 at 8:07 a.m., police responded to a call at an apartment at 1553 Maynard Ave. E. on the report of a girl drowned in a bathtub. The call stated that the girl was not breathing.
When police arrived, the mother -- identified Wednesday as Kayla Marie Jones -- was in front of the apartment standing by a fire truck. When Jones saw the police officer, she put her hands up in the air as if surrendering. She was then handcuffed. She didn't show any emotions or say anything and her clothing and hair was wet, the criminal complaint said.
Responding officers also encountered a man identified as Jones' boyfriend. He was crying and screaming, "Is this really happening? This can't be happening! Things aren't that bad. How could she do this to her daughter?" He told police he had an argument with Jones and she told him to leave, so he went to a nearby bus stop. A short time later, he saw Jones walking toward him. When he asked about her daughter, she did not answer, but told him to call 911. He then returned to the apartment where he found the girl under water in the tub, the complaint said.
When emergency responders found the girl unconscious in the tub, she was taken to Children's Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to the criminal complaint, the tub had 3 to 4 inches of water in it and there were two cellular phones in the tub. There was also standing water on the floor of the bathroom.
In an interview with police, Jones said that she woke up Tuesday morning crying and had not slept in two days. She then talked to her boyfriend and asked him if he was a pervert. She said she believed that her daughter had been molested because she saw the girl sleeping with her hands in her pants. Jones said that she had been molested when she was a child. She then said that she was watching the news and heard, "Save the child, don't send him ... to the monster." She said she didn't know what happened next.
However, when she was asked why her clothes were wet, Jones told police that they were wet from her putting her daughter in the tub. She then admitted to placing her daughter's entire clothed body face down in the tub. She said she held her daughter under the water for a minute or two and stopped holding her under when the girl stopped moving. She said she knew she was drowning her daughter but couldn't stop, the complaint said.
Jones later added that she drowned her daughter to "save her from this world."
An autopsy of the girl by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner determined that the girl's cause of death was fresh water drowning and called it a homicide.
Jones now faces one felony count of second-degree murder. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
"The actions of the defendant are both chilling and heartbreaking," Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement after the charges were announced. "As a parent, my thoughts are with the deceased six-year-old, her family and the many others whose lives will be forever affected by this tragedy. We will pursue the appropriate level of justice in this case."
Jones is expected to make her first appearance in Ramsey District Court Wednesday afternoon.
