Mother Arrested After Allegedly Leaving Baby In Vehicle
December 5, 2024
21-year-old Nikita Jones was also accused of hitting her baby in the face and charged with one count of misdemeanor child abuse and one felony count of intentional child abuse causing serious physical injury.
A woman has been arrested after allegedly striking her newborn baby and leaving the infant in a vehicle while she went to work at her job at a McDonald’s restaurant.
According to Law & Crime, 21-year-old Nikita Jones was taken into custody after police issued two warrants for her arrest. The charges were one count of misdemeanor child abuse and one felony count of intentional child abuse causing serious physical injury. She was arrested on Dec. 2. Police officers stated that the North Carolina woman left the newborn baby unrestrained in her car, and they alleged that she previously hit the baby in the face, showing visible bruising around her eyes. They added that temperatures were in the 40s on the day that she left her child in the car.
CBS 17 reported that the warrants revealed that Jones struck her six-week-old child in the face on Nov. 20. The next day, she left her baby unattended and unrestrained in a parked car. Court records show that Jones received a $50,000 secured bond for the felony charge and a $5,000 secured bond for the misdemeanor charge. She is scheduled for a court date in Wake County Court for the felony charge on Dec. 10 and the misdemeanor charge the following week on Dec. 19.
WRAL News reported that the condition of the baby was unknown, and it wasn’t revealed how long she was in the car. Dr. Ryan Lamb, medical director and chair of emergency medicine at UNC Rex Holly Springs, explained to the media outlet that it would take hours for hypothermia to set in for adults. Still, for infants, a shorter time would suffice for the baby suffering from the lower temperature.
“An appropriately dressed person in 40 degrees has hours,” Lamb said, “yet infants cannot regulate their temperature as well, and they have more body surface area than their body mass—there is more to keep warm.”
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