RAYNEISHA HUDSON - 4 yo (2011)/ Convicted: Jamal Charles - New Iberia LA

NEW IBERIA — Remnants of red evidence tape hung Friday near the door
of the mobile home where, a day earlier, 4-year-old Rayneisha Hudson died.
The tape was a reminder of the ongoing
investigation that led Friday to the arrests of Rayneisha’s mother and
the mother’s live-in boyfriend, both booked on child cruelty charges in the child’s death.
“Last night I didn’t sleep at all. I was thinking
of that little girl,” said JoAnn Babineaux, who lives a few driveways
down from the mobile home on Spencer Loop in New Iberia.
Vanessa Edmond, 23, and Jamal Charles, 25, were
each booked on three counts of second-degree cruelty to juveniles in
Rayneisha’s death and for allegations involving two other children in
the home, Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office Detective Ashley Irby said.
Edmond and Charles remain in the Iberia Parish
jail, and investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy report to
determine the cause of death, Irby said.
The investigation began when emergency officials
responded to a 911 call placed at 12:45 p.m. Thursday from the couple’s
home in the 1100 block of Spencer Loop, Irby said.
She said the 4-year-old was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead.
Two of Edmond’s other children — a 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter —
were taken to a local hospital, Irby said.
The 3-year-old remained in stable condition
Friday, she said, and the 5-year-old was admitted for observation but later released.
Irby declined to comment on the nature of the injuries or any specifics of the investigation.
The Iberia Parish Coroner’s Office had yet to release the cause of death as of Friday evening.
The family’s mobile home at the corner of Shelton
Loop and Shelton Street is about a block from Anderson Middle School in a
mix of other mobile homes and small wood-frame houses.
On Friday morning, a flattened box that once held a
child-sized table and two chairs sat on the porch of the couple’s
mobile home.Kimberly Clark, who lives across the street from the family’s trailer,
said investigators were at the scene until about 11 p.m.
“I saw them tow a car and take the stove,” Clark said.
Irby declined to comment of what significance, if any, those items have in the investigation.
“We collected a lot of evidence from the house,” Irby said. “We investigated it to the fullest extent.”
Clark said she saw no signs that the family was troubled.
“You never hardly saw them or heard them,” she said.
Alfreida Prevost lives near the girl’s home and was walking her dog
in the neighborhood Thursday when the ambulances arrived.
“I went to try to talk to Jamal (Charles),”
Prevost said. “I asked him, ‘Is she alright?’, but the police told me to cross the street.”

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/114847189.html?index=14&c=y

Posters note: Will leave in unresolved until other charges are made.

The 4-year-old girl who died in New Iberia last week was severely
burned from her knees to her feet and had been whipped with a hammer,
according to an affidavit released Tuesday.
The affidavit released Tuesday gives a gruesome account of the
condition of the 4 year-old found unresponsive by her mother on the
morning of January 27th.
The affidavit states that when paramedics arrived, they discovered
the girl laying on the floor "stiff and was cold to the touch".
Detectives say in the affidavit that rigor mortis had already began to
set and that she was "from the waist down with her skin fluffing off".
Hudson's mother, 23-year-old Vanessa Edmond, and Edmond's live-in
boyfriend, Jamal Charles, 25, were arrested and booked on child cruelty
charges related to the girl's death.
The affidavit also states that detectives found a second child, a
3-year-old boy, with burn injuries to his left foot and buttocks.
The 3 year-old child was transported to a hospital in Baton Rouge for
treatment. According to the affidavit, a medical official later
determined that the injuries were recent and caused by hot water.
The coroner has not yet released a cause of death in the case.
An older sibling, a 5-year-old girl, was not injured in the case but
filled in many of the haunting details to detectives. In the affidavit,
the girl tells detectives that Charles whipped her 4 year-old sister
with a hammer because she had soiled herself.
The 5 year-old also told detectives that Charles then "put her sister and brother in a hot tub," the affidavit states.
The Acadiana Crime Lab, checking the temperature of the water from
the bathtub with a certified thermometer, determined that the water was
180 degrees, according to the affidavit.
In the affidavit, Charles denies any wrongdoing in interviews with
detectives and said that the children stayed in their room watching
television and then he fell asleep.
According to the affidavit, Edmond, the children's biological mother
left for work at 9:45 pm and Charles had driven her to work, leaving all
three of the children alone in the home.
Edmond also told detectives that Charles was supposed to stop for cigarettes and then head straight home.
Charles told detectives that instead of going home he went to a bar
and remained away from home until 5am the morning of January 27th, the
affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, when he returned home he called Edmond at
work and told her that everything was OK and that the children were
still sleeping.
Charles left the home again about 6 a.m. to pick up Edmond from work and they both returned home, the affidavit states.
Edmond told detectives that when she woke up from sleeping through
the morning, she found her 4 year-old daughter not breathing, according
to the affidavit.
Both Edmond and Charles were booked into the Iberia Parish Jail on three counts of second-degree cruelty to juveniles.
Both remained incarcerated as of Tuesday.
Lt. Ryan Turner with the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office says that
they are working closely with the District Attorney and Coroner's office
in the investigation.http://www.katc.com/news/girl-found-dead-had-severe-burns-to-her-legs-according-to-affadavit/

Judge convicts New Iberia man of killing girl, 4

Posted: Oct 30, 2014 5:19 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 30, 2014 5:19 AM CDT

A New Iberia man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a 4-year-old girl and scalding her 3-year-old brother.

The Daily Iberian reports that District Judge Charles Porter recently sentenced 29-year-old Jamal Charles.

Charles was convicted Sept. 15 in a bench trial. Investigators testified that he beat Rayneisha Hudson with a hammer and put the girl and her brother Raymon into a bathtub of 180-degree water.

At the time, the children's mother was Charles' girlfriend.

KATC-TV reports that forensic pathologist Christopher Tape testified that the girl had been hit in many places, and some of the injuries were days old.

Rayneisha Hudson died Jan. 27, 2011.

http://www.ktbs.com/story/27161737/judge-convicts-new-iberia-man-of-killing-girl-4