A 24-year-old woman in Michigan faces decades in prison for killing a 23-month-old boy she was babysitting by throwing him against a wall, causing a fatal head injury.
According to Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV, a jury in Macomb County on Thursday found Kimora Launmei Hodges guilty of one count of murder in the 2022 slaying of young Kyrie Starks.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, on June 22, 2022, officers from the Roseville Police Department responded to a local hospital after staff reported that a young boy had been admitted with severe head trauma.
The victim’s mother called police after picking up her son from Hodges’ home in the 30000 block of Little Mack Avenue. Hodges, a neighbor, had been babysitting the child on a semi-regular basis for the past few months while the victim’s mother went to work.
Hodges reportedly contacted the victim’s mother and informed her that the victim did not appear to be normal. The mother rushed to Hodges’ house, where she discovered her son in dire straits.
“When I got there, my baby was on the ground, having seizure after seizure,” she previously told Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK.
Hodges attempted to blame the boy’s condition on a “allergic reaction” to “eating soap,” according to his mother’s GoFundMe page. The boy’s mother stated that she initially believed Hodges was telling the truth about her son having an allergic reaction until medical personnel at the hospital explained the full extent of the boy’s bodily injuries.
“I believed her until the doctors told me otherwise because I trusted her. I feel so betrayed because I would’ve done anything for [Hodges] & her daughter,” she wrote, noting that Hodges’ child was the same age as the victim.
The victim arrived at the hospital around 2 a.m. on June 14, 2022, according to court documents.
“He had blunt force trauma to the head and he was bleeding out his ears and had to have immediate brain surgery,” the woman’s mother told WJBK. “All I know is she threw my son into the wall and shook him up pretty bad and they said that’s just a bit of what she did to him.”
Police arrested Hodges around 7:50 a.m., just hours after the victim was admitted to the hospital. According to investigators, Hodges admitted to physically abusing the toddler while “watching” him for his mother.
“That’s not what was supposed to happen,” she told detectives during the subsequent interview, according to court records. “You all want to blame me. You all just want me to say I vented my rage on [the victim]. “That is not what it is.”
Hodges went on to say, “Maybe I hit him too hard, but I didn’t take my anger out on him.”
Authorities initially charged Hodges with first-degree child abuse. However, the charge was upgraded to murder after the victim died from his injuries on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.
Hodges is scheduled to appear in court for her sentencing hearing on October 2. She could face life in prison, according to the Detroit News.
