JANYIHA WHITEMAN - 11 Months (11/2011) - Virginia Beach VA

The search for a missing 11-month-old girl ended tragically. Her body
was found in a hotel parking garage in Virginia Beach and police are
calling her death suspicious. The investigation led detectives to
a hotel in the 1800 block of Atlantic Avenue, where the baby's body was
recovered on the fifth floor of the garage, Virginia Beach police said.
On
October 6, police were contacted by family members concerning the
welfare of 11-month-old Janyiha Whiteman. Marie Whiteman, the child's
mother, left her baby in the care of her boyfriend, Lawrence Ray Smith,
on September 16 after Marie was sent to jail for a probation violation.
The baby was last seen by family members on October 1, according to
police.
Family members later notified Whiteman that her child and Smith had not been heard from since October 3.
On Friday, October 21, at approximately 3:30 a.m., officers located Smith walking in the 200 block of Atlantic Avenue.
Officers took Smith into custody without incident. He is in custody on unrelated felony charges.
Police said the cause of death and identification will be determined by the Medical Examiner's Office in Norfolk.
The case remains under investigation by members of the Department's Homicide Unit.
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/va_beach/missing-baby-found-dead-in-parking-lot

VIRGINIA BEACH -- "There's no excuse for my baby to be dead right
now," said Marie Whiteman. "I'm devastated, straight up. There's no
words he could ever tell me that would ever make me believe him or
anything else he ever said again."

Lawrence Smith, Whiteman's boyfriend, told her he would take care of
her daughter, Janyiha in September. Whiteman had to go to the Virginia
Beach Correction Center because of a probation violation.

"The loyalty that lied there, the trust. I had that in him,"
explained Whiteman. "He's been here through my whole pregnancy,
including giving birth. He was, basically, like the father. I mean, the
biological father has not really been there."

Whiteman said the first couple weeks that she was in jail seemed to
go okay. Family members, who live in Colony Mobile Home Park where she
and Smith shared a trailer, saw Smith and and Janyiha on a regular
basis.

Relatives told her they started noticing a lot of traffic going in
and out of the couple's home, alleging that, among other things, Smith
had prostitutes in the trailer. Whiteman told 13News the family members
asked Smith to give Janyiha to them, but he didn't. Whitman said she
filled out 3 affidavits while in jail expressing her desire for Smith to
give her daughter to her relatives. By the beginning of October,
however, Smith and Janyiha were gone.

Whiteman's family reported the boyfriend and 11-month-old missing
October 6. Virginia Beach police began looking for both, handing out
flyers with Smith's and Janyiha's pictures at the Oceanfront. This week,
people said they saw Smith without the baby. Then, an officer spotted
him Friday morning, and police took him into custody.

Whiteman explained police brought her in, because Smith refused to open up to anyone except her.

"He's telling me my baby, he was asleep in the bed with the child,
and when he woke up, supposedly, Janyiha was not breathing. He said he
tried to bring her back, CPR. Nothing. He never called the ambulance,"
shared Whiteman. "He said he got really scared, and he wrapped the baby
up, and I don't know how he got her there, whether it was with a
stroller or what, and, then, he told me where I could locate her body
at."

Whiteman told 13News officers found her daughter's body in the parking garage of a hotel at the Oceanfront.

"Janyiha Marie Whiteman, I love you. You're in my heart, and can't
nobody or anything ever replace you, and I'm so sorry that this happened
to you," said Whiteman as she prepared to go to a small vigil for her
daughter in her mobile home park Friday night.

People at the Medical Examiner's Office said it completed an autopsy
on Janyiha's body, but it is not releasing the results at the request of
the Virginia Beach Police Department.

Smith has not been charged in connection to the 11-month-old's death.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Mom-says-boyfriend-led-her-police-to-daughters-body-132361798.html

VIRGINIA BEACH


The boyfriend of the mother of the 11-month-old girl reported missing
last month, and who was arrested the day police found a baby dead in an
Oceanfront parking garage, has been charged in connection with the
girl's treatment.

Lawrence Ray Smith Jr., 33, was arraigned Wednesday in Juvenile and
Domestic Relations District Court, charged with transporting and
concealing a dead body and child abuse and neglect, said Macie Pridgen, a
spokeswoman for the Beach commonwealth's attorney's office.


Police are awaiting a medical examiner's report on the baby who was
found and have not officially identified her, but after she was found,
the search for Janyiha Whiteman - the missing baby - was called off.

Pridgen also said Janyiha was the alleged victim of Smith's abuse and neglect charge.

A bond hearing on Smith's new charges is set for today.

The suspicious-death investigation began after Smith disappeared with
Janyiha last month. The baby's mother, Marie Whiteman, had entrusted
Smith with the baby's care while she served a month in jail for a
probation violation.

Officers found Smith, who led them to search the parking garage of
the Country Inn & Suites at 1801 Atlantic Ave., where they found the
body. Police initially arrested Smith on a charge of violating
probation stemming from a 2009 petty larceny conviction.

Smith and Whiteman were convicted in August of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it.

Janyiha last was seen by family at the Colony Motel and Mobile Home Park on Virginia Beach Boulevard.
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/boyfriend-charged-abuse-va-beach-infant

A man charged in the case of an infant reported missing last month
did not try to get help for the child as she was dying, a prosecutor
said Thursday.

Lawrence Ray Smith Jr., 33, later put the baby's body in a stroller,
rolled her to an Oceanfront parking garage and hid her behind a wall,
the prosecutor told a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
judge at Smith's bond hearing on charges of child abuse and neglect and
improper transporting and concealing of a body.

Smith led police to a badly decomposing body at the Country Inn & Suites garage Oct. 21.

Authorities are awaiting DNA results before officially identifying
the remains as those of Janyiha Whiteman, who was 10 months old when
family members said they last saw her Oct. 1. But police called off the
search for the child after the discovery and charged Smith this week
with the abuse and concealment crimes.

Prosecutors are proceeding in the case as if the body found in the
garage was Janyiha's, said Macie Pridgen, spokeswoman for the
commonwealth's attorney's office.

The baby's mother, Marie Whiteman, said she left Janyiha with Smith
on Sept. 16 when she reported to jail for a probation violation.
Whiteman, who was dating Smith, could not locate either of them after
her release a month later. She made a public plea for help a day before
the body was found in the garage.

It is still unclear how the infant died. Senior Assistant
Commonwealth's Attorney Diane Nelms said in court Thursday the death
occurred while the baby was in Smith's care.

She asked that Smith be held without bond, citing an "extensive
criminal history" that includes convictions for marijuana possession,
grand larceny, assault and battery, violating probation and multiple
failures to appear in court.

Nelms said he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Smith's attorney, public defender Kristina McDermott, denied that.
She argued for a bond because Smith's last failure to appear was five
years ago, she said, and he did not have transportation. She said Smith
has lived in the area all his life.

Judge Deborah L. Rawls denied bond.

Smith's next hearing is Nov. 17, when a date for a preliminary hearing will be set.
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/va-beach-prosecutor-man-didnt-get-help-dying-infant

Police in Virginia Beach have confirmed that a body found in a
parking garage last month was that of 11-month-old Janyiha Whiteman, who
had been reported missing two weeks earlier.
Lawrence Ray Smith, 33, the boyfriend of the child's mother, was
arrested on Nov. 1 and charged with abuse and neglect of a child and
with unlawful disposal of a dead body. Police arrested him on Oct. 21 in
the 200 block of Atlantic Avenue, and he directed officers to the
location of the body in a parking garage about 16 blocks away.
Police spokesman Grazia Moyers said DNA tests have confirmed the
identity of the body. She said a cause of death has not yet been
determined, and the case remains under investigation.
Marie Whiteman, Janyiha's mother, left the girl in Smith's
care while she served a jail term for probation violation. While she was
in custody, family members reported the child missing on Oct. 6

http://www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-nws-body-in-garage,0,914208.story

The Commonwealth's Attorney has dropped the child neglect charge
against the man arrested in connection with the death of Virginia Beach
baby. The charge against Lawrence Ray Smith, Jr. was nolle prossed, spokeswoman Macie Pridgen said.
Nolle prossed charges can be brought back up if more evidence is found.
Janyiha's
mother left her 11-month-old baby in Smith's care in September 2011
after she was sent to jail for a probation violation.
Family members reported the baby missing Oct. 6.
On October 21, police found Janyiha's body in a hotel parking garage at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Thursday, a grand jury certified a felony concealment of a dead body charge against Smith.
His next court appearance is set for April 3.

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/va_beach/charge-dropped-in-missing-babys-case

Man pleads guilty to concealing baby's body

WVEC.com
Posted on April 3, 2012 at 1:04 PM

VIRGINIA BEACH -- A Va. Beach man pleaded guilty Tuesday to concealing the body of a child in his care.

Lawrence Ray Smith Jr. was watching his girlfriend's 11-month-old girl, Janyiha Whiteman, while she was in jail on a probation violation. Her family reported them missing on October 6.

The little girl's body was located in an Oceanfront hotel parking garage.

Smith was initially charged with felony child neglect charge as well, but it was dropped for lack of evidence. Prosecutors said they could reinstate the charge if evidence comes to light.

Smith will be sentenced in June, Commonwealth's Attorney spokeswoman Macie Pridgen told WVEC.com.

http://www.wvec.com/my-city/vabeach/Man-pleads-guilty-to-concealing-baby-145952745.html