New details revealed in Macon baby’s burning death at couple’s 1st court appearance
A Macon mother and her boyfriend accused in the burning death of her 5-month-old son who investigators say was left alone in front of a hot space heater for more than seven hours made their first court appearances Wednesday.
Jalicia Aquanetta Kent and Quantious Trenard Hodges, both charged with second-degree murder, said little as they each heard the charge against them read.
The authorities have declined to provide much detail about the circumstances of 5-month-old Imir Kent’s death — other than to say the child was left in a bedroom in a car seat and that he apparently got out of the seat and onto the heater.
The boy’s death was discovered Tuesday morning at a house on Bishop Road, just west of the shopping center at Presidential Parkway on Macon’s west side.
Murder warrants in the case contend that Hodges placed the baby “in front of a hot space heater for over seven hours.”
The second-degree murder charges against Kent, who is 28, and the 30-year-old Hodges indicate the alleged killing may not have been intentional.
According to Georgia law, a second-degree murder charge can, when applied to a cruelty-to-children offense, be brought “irrespective of malice.”
The murder warrants go on to say the infant was left “alone in a separate bedroom (with the door closed) in front of a hot space heater from 10 p.m. (on Monday) to 6 a.m. (on Tuesday). The infant was severely burned.”
The warrant added that neither Kent nor Hodges checked on the child during that time.
In a small courtroom at the Bibb County jail on Wednesday, Hodges and Kent stood before Magistrate Judge Valencia Davis-Jones and were informed that a Superior Court judge would have to set bond for them.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 4:10 PM.