Baby’s mother ‘looked away’ as dad delivered fatal beating, Macon murder warrant says
The mother of Macon’s first homicide victim of 2019 was arrested on a murder charge Tuesday morning.
Jaimie Lynn Howard, 20, of Plantation Parkway, was booked into the Bibb County jail at 10 a.m., according to jail records.
King Henderson, who turned 1 on Jan. 20, died late Thursday at Coliseum Northside Hospital, Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said.
He initially showed no signs of injury, according to an initial Bibb County sheriff’s news release.
After a GBI autopsy showed the baby succumbed to head trauma, his 21-year-old father, A’kym Malek Henderson, of the same Plantation Way address, was arrested and charged with murder Friday afternoon.
Howard is accused of “acting in concert” with Henderson, according to the arrest warrant.
She “attempted to cover up this incident by initially stating... she was only woken up by the victim struggling to breathe,” the warrant stated.
Howard continued to stick to her account during questioning, the warrant stated.
She later changed her story and said she witnessed Henderson punch the boy in the head multiple times.
She “chose to look away,” the warrant stated.
Howard failed to seek medial attention for the baby until he was unresponsive, an updated sheriff’s news release stated.
King suffered multiple complex skull fractures, scalp hemorrhages and a swollen brain, the warrant stated.
Jones said Tuesday morning that he had not been able to reach Howard after the boy’s death.
“That baby’s still in the morgue,” he said.
King’s uncle, Howard’s half-brother, said his sister wants a private autopsy on the child as she does not believe Henderson is guilty.
Aaron Beaver, of LaGrange, said Howard and Henderson were devoted parents who stopped going out at night and partying to care for their child.
“They gave all that up when King was born,” Beaver said. “She and A’kym put that baby on a pedestal.”
Howard grew up in Thomaston, but the couple moved to Macon after the baby was born to live with Henderson’s mother, he said.
Howard’s been “the sweetest little girl since she was 10,” he said, and “wouldn’t harm a butterfly.”
Beaver could not explain what happened to the child but said his sister is devastated.
“She’s been heartbroken since it happened. She’s into herself,” he said.
Howard told family members she wants to have the boy cremated and put his ashes in an hourglass necklace to wear around her neck.
This story was originally published January 29, 2019 at 12:07 PM.
