JANYHA CHRISTINE GRAVES - 19 Months (2011)/ Convicted: Babysitter; Unnamed 15 yo - Killeen TX

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) — A 14-year-old boy is in juvenile custody after
the death of a 19-month-old Central Texas girl whom investigators found
suffering from multiple injuries.The incident happened Tuesday at
a southwest Killeen duplex apartment. A Killeen police statement says
officers went to the apartment Tuesday morning after receiving a report
of a one-year-old child not breathing. They found Janyha Christine
Graves and began efforts to revive her until paramedics arrived.The
police statement says the child was airlifted to Scott & White
Memorial Hospital with numerous injuries, but she was pronounced dead
around midday. An autopsy has been order.The boy who was sitting
the girl and two other children, ages 4 and 7, was booked into the Bell
County Juvenile Detention Center charged with injury to a child.
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/14-year-old-in-custody-after-toddlers-death/XjO_HyVdHk6pD1pazYJ6tQ.cspx

Toddler’s death leads to teen’s arrest
 
Philip Jankowski The Killeen Daily Herald
Posted Apr 13, 2011

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the Tuesday death of a 19-month-old girl.

The unidentified teenager has been charged with felony injury to a child. He remained in custody at the Bell County Juvenile Detention Center Tuesday evening, according to Killeen Police Department spokeswoman Carroll Smith.

The 19-month-old was identified as Janyha Christine Graves. Justice of the Peace David Barfield pronounced Graves dead at 11:51 a.m. Tuesday at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Smith said the name of the teenage suspect will not be released by police because of privacy laws that protect minors.

The Bell County Attorney's office will handle the case from this point forward and make the ultimate decision as to whether the 14-year-old's charge is upgraded from injury to a child to murder, she said.

The county attorney's office was not reachable for comment Tuesday.

Police first learned of a seriously injured child Monday night when they responded to a 911 call placed by a neighbor about 7:30, Smith said. The juvenile suspect had contacted the neighbor prior to police being notified.

When officers arrived at the residence in the 5400 block of Lauren Lea Drive, they initiated emergency respiration on the girl until paramedics arrived, according to a KPD news release.

The girl was taken to Metroplex Hospital and then airlifted to Scott & White Hospital.

Smith said she could not comment about the nature or circumstances surrounding the injuries the 19-month-old sustained because the suspect is a minor and the investigation is ongoing.

"You can't really say a whole lot because he is a juvenile," she said.

The 14-year-old boy was babysitting the 19-month-old girl as well as two other children ages 4 and 7 at the time of the injuries. Smith could not say if any of the other children were injured. The suspect was arrested at the scene.

The 14-year-old boy is not related to the victim, Smith said.

Barfield ordered an autopsy to be performed by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences. If Graves' death is ruled a homicide, it would mark the city's seventh homicide this year.

Contact Philip Jankowski at philipj@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7553. Follow him on Twitter at KDHcrime.

http://kdhnews.com/news/toddler-s-death-leads-to-teen-s-arrest/article_2f8c39a5-008d-5fe0-9de8-e783f04af4bb.html?mode=jqm

Teenager sentenced to 12 years in child’s 2011 death

Posted: Saturday, January 19, 2013 4:30 am
Philip Jankowski | Herald staff writer

BELTON — A judge sentenced a 15-year-old Killeen boy to 12 years of confinement Friday for the 2011 death of a 19-month-old girl.

The teenage defendant, whom the Herald will not name because he is a minor, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in December in the 2011 death of Janyha Christine Graves.

Authorities took the boy to the Bell County Juvenile Detention Center. He will be transferred to a Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility and eventually to state prison.

Police arrested the teenaged boy on April 12, 2011, after Janyha Graves died at a hospital. He spent about 68 days in custody before being released to his parents.

Prosecutor John Gaunnt Jr. said investigators never learned exactly how the boy, then 14, killed the girl. She suffered multiple injuries to her head.

The teenager remained somewhat uncooperative during the investigation, and did not take responsibility for Graves’ death even after pleading guilty.

“He caused the death of a child, and there is no excuse for it,” Gauntt told the court.

County Court-at-Law No. 1 Judge Edward Johnson said that because the youth refused to take responsibility for the girl’s death, he felt that probation was not a proper sentence.

In delivering the sentence, Johnson said the boy appeared to have little to no remorse for Graves’ death and blamed others for his arrest and trial.

Dressed in thin, black jeans and a gray short-sleeved button-down shirt, the 15-year-old showed no emotion as Johnson pronounced his sentence.

As the sentence was read, one woman sitting in support of the teenager began weeping. After the hearing concluded, she tearfully remarked that the sentence was “not fair.”

Authorities originally charged the teen with injury to a child. That charge was later upgraded when he was indicted.

He had been baby-sitting Graves along with two other children, ages 4 and 7, at a home in the 5400 block of Lauren Lea Drive the day the child was hurt.

Neighbors called police after the teenager told them about an unconscious child. Emergency personnel airlifted the child to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where she died the following day.

http://kdhnews.com/news/crime/teenager-sentenced-to-years-in-child-s-death/article_407746ae-61f4-11e2-85df-0019bb30f31a.html