Parents of dead infant indicted

Published 10:11 pm Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Suffolk grand jury has handed down warrants and indictments for the parents of an infant found dead in her home in December.

Linwood McKinley Jones Jr. and Shawntay Demetria Jones each received four counts of child neglect/abuse, one with serious injury. Each parent also is faces a charge of murder, which was certified by the January meeting of the grand jury.

The couple’s 11-month-old daughter was found dead in their Third Avenue home on Dec. 1, when paramedics were called to the scene. The responders found the child lying on the living room floor, cold to the touch, with rigor mortis setting in her arms and legs.

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The parents told police that they had last checked on the child at 7 a.m., more than eight hours before she was found dead, according to police. Officers found the home had vomit on the floor, little heat, no running water and feces standing in the toilet, as well as trash and food covering the kitchen floor. The front yard of the home was strewn with candy wrappers, fast food wrappers and a soiled diaper.

Two other children, ages 3 and 4, were removed from the home by Child Protective Services. Judge Robert Brewbaker ruled, as a condition of the $5,000 bond for each parent, that neither parent is to have contact with the other two children.

The day after the infant’s death, a reporter observed workers from Bestway Rent-To-Own removing a freezer and a large flat-screen television from the home. The men said they had been called and told to pick up the items.

The jury trial on the murder charge, set for June 3, is expected to last for three days.