Witness in child death trial: 'You could hear the smacks'

On the morning of May 22, 2013, Aalyah Vasser stood on the porch of her home in Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood, waving to her mother and brother as they left.

"We heard a baby crying and you could hear the smacks," Vasser testified in Bibb County Superior Court Tuesday. "He was screaming at the top of his lungs."

Vasser said she first heard the commotion between 7 and 8 a.m., and it continued until her mother and brother returned about two hours later.

Authorities were called to a nearby house in the neighborhood, on Mutual Avenue, just before 12:30 p.m. that day.

Three-year-old Jakarie Reid was unresponsive. He died at a hospital about 12 hours later.

Jakarie's mother, 26-year-old Jameshia Desiree Reid, was charged with murder and child cruelty.

Testimony in her trial began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

In her opening statement to jurors, prosecutor Shelley Milton said the child died of blunt force trauma -- or from injuries sustained from a blunt instrument used with great force.

During GBI medical examiner Melissa Sims-Stanley's testimony, jurors saw photos of the toddler's injuries -- bruises and scratches on his face, head, chest, back and arms.

She testified that one bruise seemed to match a sketch of an aquarium fish net handle that police drew from a net seized from the family's home. Another could have come from a broken clothes hanger found in the house.

Sims-Stanley said Jakarie sustained multiple blows to his head, causing brain damage and bleeding.

The boy's injuries weren't consistent with being caused by an accident, she said.

Reid's lawyer, Mark Beberman, told jurors in his opening statement that Reid's girlfriend, Latonya Sanders, inflicted the injuries that caused the boy's death.

He said Reid might be guilty of failing to protect her son or of excessive discipline, but "she is not guilty of murdering her own child." Beberman said Reid and Sanders had been together for two to three years, and he contended Sanders was primarily responsible for Jakarie's discipline.

Sanders fled to Florida after Jakarie's death, he said.

'NONE OF MY BUSINESS'

Vasser testified that she had stood out on her porch days earlier when two women moved in. One had dreadlocks and looked more "masculine." The other looked more "soft."

When shown a picture of Reid from 2013, she said the woman in the photo wasn't the one with dreadlocks that she saw come out of the house on May 22 while Vasser heard a woman screaming and a child crying.

Vasser's brother and mother also testified that they heard the child crying and the woman yelling while the other woman was outside.

Vasser said she didn't do anything, though.

"I thought it was none of my business."

But she went outside and talked with authorities -- along with other neighbors -- when she saw emergency vehicles arrive and someone carrying a small boy who appeared to be dead.

Reid spoke with Bibb County Division of Family and Children's Services investigator William Herndon while Jakarie was being treated at the hospital.

Herndon testified Tuesday that she told him her family had recently moved from Warner Robins because they could find cheaper housing in Macon.

Jakarie lived with Reid, Sanders and his younger sister. Reid had an older daughter -- still a young girl -- who lived with her mother.

The house on Mutual Avenue didn't have running water or air conditioning, Herndon said, though Reid said the landlord was due to provide air conditioning.

Jurors heard a recording of the interview Tuesday. Several of them appeared to be watching Reid while they listened.

Reid, who has been held at the county jail since her May 2013 arrest, looked down for much of the recording.

In the interview, Reid said she and her girlfriend had gotten out of bed between 10 and 11 a.m. and sent Jakarie to the restroom as he learned to use the toilet.

But when she heard rumbling, she found the child in the kitchen holding an open bottle of nail polish remover.

Not long after that, he collapsed, Reid told the investigator.

Herndon testified Reid told him the boy's scratches and bruises came from his playing with a dog and a jump rope on the prior day.

In a subsequent interview, she explained that he'd fallen on the porch, hitting his head on the morning he went to the hospital, he said.

Reid admitted having "anger issues" but said Sanders helped her calm down.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Witness in child death trial: 'You could hear the smacks' ."