AUBREY KINA-MARIE LITTLEJOHN - 15 Months (1/2011) - Bryson City/ Asheville NC

BRYSON CITY — A little more than a year after
15-month-old Aubrey Kina-Marie Littlejohn arrived at a hospital, limp
and cold, the child’s great-aunt has been charged with second-degree
murder.

Lady Bird Powell also faces
charges of first-degree kidnapping, extortion, possession of
methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of
felony child abuse, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran said Friday
evening.
Authorities allege just a few months before the child died, Powell refused to give the child back to her mother.
“She refused to give the child back to her mother and wanted money before she would give her back,” Cochran said Friday.


Powell had been caring for the child while the girl’s mother was in jail.
The child abuse charges stem from injuries Aubrey Littlejohn sustained before her death.
Littlejohn died Jan. 10, 2011, after she was taken to Cherokee Indian Hospital.
Officials
have said the child’s temperature was 84 degrees when she arrived at
the hospital. A person who lived at the home where the child was staying
said the girl was left in a car seat for 12 hours and had only a few
bites of a hot dog to eat.
Powell denied that allegation and told the Citizen-Times last February that the child was well cared for.
An
autopsy report said the child’s cause of death was undetermined.
Cochran declined to say how authorities think Littlejohn died.
The
death last year sparked an investigation into how the Swain County
Department of Social Services handled the case. Social workers visited
the home five months before Littlejohn died but found no evidence of
abuse despite a complaint the girl had fallen from an unbuckled car seat
down a set of stairs.
After
the child died, a social worker falsified records to show he had called
the hospital to make sure the child was examined for injuries from the
fall, investigators said in a search warrant.
“This
has been one of the hardest cases that we have had to investigate,
primarily because of the age of the child. As a parent, it is hard to
imagine any child being taken away at such an early age,” Cochran said
in a statement. “There has been a great expression of concern from
Aubrey’s family members, and we want everyone in Swain County to know
that we have never stopped working on this case.”
Powell was jailed under a $1 million bond Friday. She is scheduled to make a first court appearance Monday.
District
Attorney Mike Bonfoey said Friday he could not discuss details of the
pending case. “This is, obviously, a case that is generating a lot of
interest, and I don’t want to say anything or do anything to give
someone an argument to change venue,” he said.
The investigation into the case continues.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120204/NEWS/302040026/Charges-filed-death-child?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

BRYSON CITY — Ruth McCoy says she begged social workers to remove her niece’s young daughter from an unheated mobile home because she believed conditions there were unsafe.

She couldn’t understand why they took 15-month-old Aubrey Littlejohn’s cousin from the home, but left the little girl.

“If they took one, it seems crazy not to take the other,” McCoy said Saturday, a day after the child’s caregiver at the time, Lady Bird Powell, was charged with Aubrey’s murder. “They left the one who couldn’t take care of herself.

“Two months later, she’s dead.”

Swain County sheriff’s deputies charged Powell, the child’s great aunt, with second-degree murder, felony child abuse, first-degree kidnapping, extortion and possession of methamphetamine.

The charges were brought more than a year after the girl was pronounced dead on Jan. 10, 2011, at Cherokee Indian Hospital. Officials said her body temperature was 84 degrees when she was brought in.

“I think it’s the beginning of justice being served for Aubrey,” McCoy said. “It’s been a long, drawn out process with the investigation. I think it’s still going to be a long road, but it’s a start.”

Powell had been caring for the child while the girl’s mother was in jail. An autopsy report said the cause of death was undetermined.

Sheriff Curtis Cochran said that a few months before the child died, Powell refused to give her back to her mother unless she was given money in return. The child abuse charge stems from injuries Aubrey Littlejohn sustained before her death.

A person who lived at the home where the child was staying said the girl was left in a car seat for 12 hours and had only a few bites of a hot dog to eat.

Powell denied that allegation and told the Citizen-Times last February the child was well cared for.

McCoy said that while she’s glad that Powell was finally charged, she believes officials with the Swain County Department of Social Services also need to be held accountable.

She said that when she asked a social worker why they were removing Aubrey’s 11-year-old cousin from Powell’s house but not the toddler, she was told “’that’s another case.’

“If it was unsafe for one child, wouldn’t it be unsafe for both?” McCoy said. “There was no heat in the house. Numerous people are at fault.”

DSS officials have said they are prohibited by law from discussing the case.

The death sparked an investigation into how DSS handled the case. Social workers visited the home five months before Littlejohn died but found no evidence of abuse despite a complaint the girl had fallen from an unbuckled car seat down a set of stairs.

After the child died, a social worker falsified records to show he had called the hospital to make sure the child was examined for injuries from the fall, investigators said in a search warrant.

Powell was jailed under $1 million bond Friday. She is scheduled to make a first court appearance Monday. Cochran said the investigation is continuing.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120205/NEWS/302050076/Toddler-s-family-hopes-justice?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage

Cherokee woman admits killing her 15-month-old niece who she fed bits of hot dog and soda and left strapped in soiled clothes in a car seat for 12 hours before her death

By Associated Press Reporter

PUBLISHED: 00:36 EST, 19 February 2013 | UPDATED: 08:07 EST, 19 February 2013

A North Carolina woman pleaded guilty Monday to killing her 15-month-old
niece in a case in which social workers are accused of ignoring, then
covering up the child's abuse until after her death.

Ladybird Powell, 39, of Bryson City, appeared in Swain County Superior Court,
where she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, extortion,
possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of felony child abuse.

Judge James Downs sentenced Powell to 12 years in prison.



Ladybird Powell, 39, was sentenced to 12 years for involuntary manslaughter,
extortion, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of felony
child abuse



Aubrey Littlejohn was neglected for hours before her death, regularly fed junk
food, and even suffered a broken arm in her short life

She was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in January 2012 – one year after Aubrey Littlejohn's death.

Powell had begun taking care of Aubrey shortly before the toddler's mother,
Jasmine Littlejohn, reported to jail in April 2010 to await trial in a
marijuana-trafficking case. Littlejohn was in jail when her daughter
died.

The plea is the latest development in a
case that has stunned and polarized western North Carolina and sparked
anger in the Native American community.

Aubrey was a member of the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, some of whom say the Swain County
Department of Social Services did not do enough to protect Aubrey and
other Native American children.

Part of the Cherokees' sprawling reservation lies in Swain County.

Two Swain County social service workers have been charged with falsifying
records and indicted on obstruction of justice charges in Aubrey's
death.



Aubrey was left in the care of a relative when mother Jasmine Littlejohn went to jail for a probation violation in April 2010

The DSS director at the time of the girl's death was fired for what county officials said were unrelated reasons.

Before Powell's arrest, an Associated Press investigation found that police
and social workers had been aware of reports that Aubrey was being
mistreated while she was staying with the woman.

David Wijewickrama, a lawyer representing Aubrey's estate, called Monday's
events 'a step, an important one, in the journey of justice for the
Littlejohn family.'

He has filed two lawsuits in connection with
her death, at least one of which names the county DSS as a defendant
along seven current and former social workers.

Wijewickrama thanked private detective Daniel Cheatham, who looked into the girl's
death, as well as Cherokee Principal Chief Michell Hicks, for demanding
an investigation and.

Wijewickrama said the next step will be to
'bring justice to those employees of Swain County's Department of Social
Services, who may have contributed to her death and were involved in
the shameless cover up of their own failures to protect this loving and
innocent child from abuse.'

DSS officials said they're prohibited from commenting on the case.

During Monday's court hearing, Littlejohn cried as she listened to prosecutors
discuss details of the case – including how Powell had snapped and
broke the little girl's arm.

Later, Littlejohn addressed the court: 'I miss Aubrey every day,' she said.

Members of Littlejohn's family, led by great-aunt Ruth McCoy, had repeatedly
pushed for justice in the case along with the little girl's mother.



Family members said they reported Aubrey's abuse to social services several times but were ignored

They say they complained repeatedly to DSS that Aubrey had bruises while she
was staying with Powell, but that social workers ignored their pleas.

In one instance, McCoy, a realty officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
said she told authorities that she was worried about Aubrey and the
toddler's cousin, an 11-year-old boy also living with Powell.

McCoy accompanied sheriff's deputies and social workers to Powell's home the
night of Nov. 9, 2010, to investigate a complaint that Aubrey and the
11-year-old boy were in danger and that Powell's trailer had no heat.

They removed the boy, placing him in McCoy's custody, but let Aubrey stay. The heat was off because the power bill wasn't paid.

McCoy told the AP that she begged social workers to take Aubrey that night, but they wouldn't listen.

The girl died Jan. 10, 2011, after Powell rushed her to the emergency room.

When Swain County investigators looked into the case, they discovered the
agency had at least three reports of neglect or abuse regarding Aubrey.

Investigators later found pages missing from written reports on the case.

Prosecutors say that after Aubrey's death, a social worker ordered a subordinate to
falsify records to make it appear that the department had done a
thorough job investigating allegations that Aubrey was being abused.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280864/Ladybird-Powell-Cherokee-woman-admits-killing-15-month-old-niece.html#ixzz2LLwznsPt