RAJAHNTHON HAYNIE - 1 month -(2010) Baltimore MD

The mother of a one-month-old boy, who authorities said has had four
other children taken away by social services, confessed Monday to
burying the infant in Druid Hill Park and
has been charged with first-degree murder, police said.

Homicide detectives tracked down 28-year-old Lakesha Haynie late Monday
afternoon, a day after the boy's father led them to the shallow grave in
a wooded area of the park. The father told police that his son,
Rajahnthon Haynie, had been buried in the park by his mother sometime
last month, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief
spokesman.

An autopsy determined the child died from blunt force trauma and
suffered head fractures, Guglielmi said. Lakesha Haynie, of the 2300
block of Whittier Ave., told investigators that the boy had suffocated,
but police spokesman Donny Moses said other aspects of her story were
consistent with the injuries the state medical examiner had documented.

Moses declined to elaborate.

On Sunday evening, the father, who has not been charged, led police to
the spot where the child was buried, and his remains were found inside a
bag.

Police began searching for Lakesha Haynie and located a baby carrier and
a blanket that the father said had been thrown off a bridge near the
Jones Falls Expressway, according to a law enforcement source with
knowledge of the investigation.

Police, with help from the Warrant Apprehension Task Force, arrested the
mother Monday afternoon, and the source said she acknowledged that she
had buried the child and had told his father the location.

Lakesha Haynie has no criminal record, though she was being sought on a
warrant charging her with assault from an October 2009 incident,
according to court records.

Moses said the homicide investigation revealed that she had four prior
children taken away from her by the Department of Social Services, which
could not be reached to confirm that information.

The father was not facing charges, Moses said, though the investigation
was "open and ongoing."

Rajahnthon Haynie was born Jan. 30, 2010. The boy's body was found in a
wooded area a few hundred feet from a road within the park, Guglielmi
said. The location of the body was given as 700 Druid Park Lake Drive, a
general address for the park, and police and parks officials said they
did not have a more precise location.

Baltimore police say a woman who has been charged in her infant son's
death lost custody of four other children to Child Protective Services.

Twenty-eight-year-old Lakesha Haynie of Baltimore was charged late
Monday with first-degree murder in the death of 2-month-old Rajahnthon
Haynie. His body was found buried in bag in Druid Hill Park on Sunday.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says an autopsy
shows that the infant suffered head fractures.

Charging documents say Haynie had a "lengthy history" with Child
Protective Services.

Haynie is being held without bond.

The death of 1-month-old Rajahnthon
Haynie, whose body was recovered from Druid Hill Park on
Sunday, presents yet another incident of child abuse that raises the
inevitable question: Might this tragedy have been avoided? In a peculiar
twist of fate, a law approved by the General Assembly just last year
may make help prevent such horrors in the future - but it needs to be
strengthened now.

Lakesha Haynie, the infant boy's 28-year-old
mother, has been charged with first-degree murder in his death.
According to autopsy results, Rajahnthon died of head fractures and
blunt force trauma. His mother is accused of burying him in a shallow
grave in the park last month.

But what's particularly troubling
about the crime is that Ms. Haynie had a history of child abuse that
should have been well-known to authorities. She had four other children
taken away by the Department of Social Services over the past eight
years; her parental rights were terminated in two cases, while another
child is currently in foster care and the fourth was given up by the
mother voluntarily to a relative, according to a state official.

Last
year, the state legislature approved a law that requires the state to
cross check records so that it can learn when mothers whose parental
rights have been terminated for incidents of abuse or neglect have given
birth to another child.

Once social services is notified, the
agency is required to investigate the family and determine whether
further intervention is required. But the law only went into effect on
Oct. 1 and was not initially interpreted by the Department of Human
Resources as retrospective - that is, DHR did not plan to look at the
records of parental terminations prior to five months ago.

Fortunately,
DHR Secretary Brenda Donald announced yesterday a change of policy -
from now on, those records will be checked as well (at least for the
four years that are readily available). That means no more grace period
for abusers who lost their parental rights prior to last October.

Whether
that would have made a difference in the Haynie case appears doubtful
at best: According to Secretary Donald, Rajahnthon's birth was not yet
registered with the state at the time of his death, so a cross-check of
records could never have taken place in time.

Lawmakers could
also have helped matters by embracing the law one year earlier, but the
matter proved controversial within the State House in 2008, as some had
concerns over privacy and other maternal rights. Sadly, those objections
now seem inadequate when weighed against an infant's life.

Last
year's measure passed with two compromises - shortening the "look back"
time to five years and flagging only parents who abused or neglected
their children and not all who lost parental rights.

Much is not
yet known about the circumstances of Rajahnthon's death. It's far from
clear whether social workers could have predicted such violence even if
they'd been alerted to Ms. Haynie's troubled history.

But what's
important is that every effort be made to identify children in danger of
being harmed and take whatever measures are necessary to prevent it.

The
economic downturn of the last two years has clearly put more children
at risk of abuse. Not only are families more stressed than ever, but
cuts in government spending on child welfare programs, combined with the
heightened demand for such services, have caused the social safety net
to fray.

More than ever, it's important for all of us - from
teachers and health professionals to relatives and neighbors - who come
in contact with children and their families to report incidents of
suspected abuse. Since the "birth match" law went into effect, at least
three babies have been identified for closer monitoring. While that's
helpful, it's only a small fraction of the children in danger of being
harmed.

Lawmakers ought to revisit the issue and consider ways to
strengthen this protection. Surely it would be helpful to apply it not
only to cases where parental rights were terminated but to all child
abuse convictions.

The risk to helpless children like Rajahnthon
is too great not to pursue every opportunity to prevent such cruelty
before it can take place.

Mom who killed baby freed in plea deal
Published: Jan. 20, 2011 at 12:17 PM



BALTIMORE, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A Baltimore judge decided not to imprison a 29-year-old mother who killed her infant and buried him in a park.

Lakesha Haynie -- originally charged with first-degree murder in the death of 1-month-old Rajahnthon Haynie -- pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Wednesday. Circuit Judge Charles J. Peters gave her a 10-year suspended prison term and five years of probation.

Haynie is forbidden to have unsupervised contact with children age 6 and younger, and must report to a local social services department if she becomes pregnant again, Peters said. She must also attend a Planned Parenthood counseling program Monday.

If she violates any probation terms, "this court will not hesitate to put you in jail" for the rest of her suspended sentence.

Rajahnthon was found buried in a bag in a city park in March. His skull was fractured and he showed signs of asphyxia, an autopsy indicated.

The Baltimore Sun reported prosecutor Julie Drake told Peters Haynie explained to the boy's father she had put her hand over Rajahnthon's mouth "to keep him from crying and that he had stopped breathing."

Drake said Haynie -- whose four other children were removed from her custody before Rajahnthon's birth -- showed "gross and wanton negligence," even refusing to deliver him in a hospital for fear authorities might remove him too.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/20/Mom-who-killed-baby-freed-in-plea-deal/UPI-10411295543832/