Family of woman charged in 2021 infant death maintains her innocence
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The family of a woman charged with felony murder for the 2021 death of an 8-month-old girl maintains she is innocent.
Columbia police arrested Jennifer Johnson in April 2021, after being called to a home in the 1000 block of Elleta Boulevard in north Columbia.
She is charged with felony murder in the second degree and two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. She is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond. A pretrial conference was held on Friday afternoon.
According to court documents, police were dispatched to the Women's and Children’s Hospital in Columbia on the morning of April 18, 2021, where they were informed that 8-month-old Hannah Kent, who was under Johnson’s care, had died.
“The case is sad. Not picking sides or choosing, it’s a sad case, but somebody needs to be held accountable for their actions. But reading everything that they’ve had in, they’re not trying as hard as they’re supposed to. It’s unfair treatment,” Johnson's daughter Angela told ABC 17 News on Friday. “She is scared.”
Angela Johnson says that family has had a close relationship with the Kent’s and had met Hannah before her death.
“She actually came to our house. I held her for a little bit. The last time I actually, visibly, saw her, she was holding a bottle. [It] was in 2021, when I was about to walk across the stage [for graduation],” Angela Johnson said. “She was in the car she just had a little smile. Happy little baby.”
Jennifer Johnson’s daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Beaman, who said she called Johnson “mom,” described the charges as out of character.
“Mom used to watch me as a kid a lot. There is no bad bone in her. She’s such a sweet person, she would never do something like this. She loves kids, it just feels like people want to take advantage,” Beaman said. “We’re praying. We're hoping for the best at this point.”
“I was supposed to be walking across the stage and I don’t get to see my mom. I cried during that,” Angerla Johnson added. “It was also sad because it was a baby that I had just seen for a long time, because it was COVID, it was around COVID when her mom was pregnant. And I remember talking to her cause I said ‘I better come see that baby. I'd better get to see that baby. I will babysit for you.'”
Beaman said Johnson called Hannah’s parents that night while she was caring for the baby because the child would not stop crying.
“She contacted them saying, ‘Hey, the baby won’t stop crying,’ but they said ‘Give her a bottle, she’s fine.’ And mom wasn’t supposed to be there overnight; she was only supposed to be there a couple of hours while her parents went out to eat, have a date night then come back,” Beaman claimed.
Court documents indicate the parents left Kent and other children in Johnson's care beginning around 5 p.m. the previous day.
The mother found the child around 8:30 a.m. unresponsive and cool to the touch after returning home and immediately noticed bruising, court documents indicate. The parents then took the child to Women's and Children's Hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead at 8:45 am.
Johnson allegedly told police she last saw the infant alive at 2:15 a.m. after giving a bottle to the child, the probable cause statement says.
According to court documents, Johnson took a call from the parents saying the baby had died and the parents wanted to see Johnson.
Two people who knew Jennifer Johnson brought items that she had at the home to police, court documents say. Investigators allegedly found baby formula on Johnson's clothes, and a swab of the same shirt tested positive for blood, the statement says.
However, Johnson’s family contends there are inconsistencies with the timeline.
“The mom stated on Facebook that she made a post at 6 a.m. saying she already knew her kid was dead,” Beaman alleged. “You knew your kid was dead, then why didn’t you go home? Why are you returning home at 8 o'clock?”
An arrest warrant was issued for Johnson in June after she was mistakenly released on parole from a Missouri prison.
Johnson was supposed to be turned over to Boone County custody to face trial for second-degree murder in the baby's death but was not, said Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Roger Johnson told ABC 17 News in June.
However, Angela Johnson said that she moved to Arkansas to live with her sister after being released from the Department of Corrections. According to the family, that location was approved as part of her home plan because it aligned with the supervision of her assigned parole officer.
“You can't just judge a person based off of what you hear from the news or from somebody from the other family,” Beaman said. “You really need to hear both sides kind of dig into it yourself.”
