Macon mom charged with fatally beating child: 'I didn't kill my son'

There was an aquarium with fish in the Warner Robins house where 3-year-old Jakarie Reid lived four years ago with his mother, her girlfriend and his younger sister.

But by the time the family moved to Macon in May 2013, they no longer had any fish.

Many boxes hadn't been unpacked from their move when Jakarie was rushed to the hospital on May 22, 2013. He was unresponsive and had what doctors would later discover was a fatal brain bleed caused by recent head injuries.

A pediatrician testified Wednesday that the toddler also had scratches and bruises on his body that were "too numerous to count."

Among them were several loop-shaped marks.

A GBI medical examiner testified that at least one of the marks matched up with a fish net seized from the family's Mutual Avenue house in Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood.

Jameshia Reid, Jakarie's mother, initially was charged with child cruelty and later murder when he died May 23, 2013.

Reid, 26, testified Wednesday as the sole witness for her defense, saying her girlfriend, Latonya Sanders, is the person who was with him when he passed out.

"I think Latonya hit him in the head," Reid told the jury. "I didn't kill my son."

MAKING A FAMILY

Sanders also testified Wednesday, saying she and Reid met online in 2010 while both of them were living in Tampa, Florida.

The women soon moved in together and moved to Warner Robins in 2012 to be closer to Reid's other daughter who lived with Reid's mother, Sanders said.

Sanders, who'd been a shift manager at Wendy's in Tampa and later in Warner Robins, lost her job in 2012. Reid was unemployed.

Facing eviction, the women made arrangements to move to a house in Macon on Mutual Avenue.

They pawned belongings to pay for the initial utility costs, Sanders said.

When they moved in, the house didn't have running water, air conditioning or natural gas for the hot water heater, she said.

Two days before they moved, Reid's mother had served Reid with notice that she was seeking custody of her daughter, whom she'd raised almost since Jakarie was born, Sanders said.

Reid said Jakarie was born with a heart condition that required multiple surgeries and for her to be in and out of the hospital where her older daughter wasn't allowed.

At the time of the move, the women were trying to potty-train Jakarie. His younger sister already was using the toilet, and Reid became frustrated, Sanders testified.

"It was stressful for her," Sanders said.

LAST CRIES

Testimony from the women differs when it comes to which one of them caught Jakarie with a bottle of fingernail polish remover. But both say he was spanked or popped for it.

Sanders said she was outside on the porch when she heard Jakarie crying and Reid saying she wanted to send him home to his father and that he was "hard-headed." Reid said she popped him on the hand.

Sanders testified that Reid called the gas company and asked Sanders to talk with the representative in hopes she would qualify for an account that didn't require a deposit or pre-payment. Reid already had been denied.

While Sanders was on the phone, she contends she heard Reid yelling at Jakarie about wetting himself.

Sanders, who said she walked to the front porch during the call, testified that she could still hear the boy crying and Reid yelling when she went back inside.

At some point later, she saw Reid holding Jakarie in her arms.

"He was gasping for air," Sanders testified, sobbing.

His heart was beating, but he was unconscious.

Sanders said she tried to perform CPR and called out the boy's name.

He never answered.

"I asked her what she did, and she said 'nothing,'" Sanders said.

Prosecutors played a recording of the phone call to the gas company. A woman's voice can be heard in the background saying, "put your pants on."

Neighbors testified this week that they saw a woman matching Sanders' description outside the house while hearing a child crying and a woman yelling on May 22, 2013.

Police, a fire truck and an ambulance arrived about 12:30 p.m. that day to take Jakarie to the hospital.

'HEAR MY STORY'

Reid, speaking calmly, told jurors a different version of the events leading up to her son's death.

She said she left Jakarie and his younger sister at home alone with Sanders on May 21 while she went to the grocery store. When she returned, the children were in bed.

Reid contends she was yelling at her daughter, not at her young son, during the gas company call.

"I never yelled at Jakarie," she said.

Reid told jurors she found Jakarie passed out on the bathroom floor after hearing Sanders yelling at him.

After he passed out, Sanders repeatedly said, "He passed out on the porch. I'm not going to jail," Reid told jurors.

Reid said she took the blame for Jakarie's injuries -- before knowing he'd died -- because Sanders previously had been investigated by child services in Florida after Sanders spanked Jakarie at a doctor's office.

A child services worker had warned her that her children would be taken away from her if they found out Sanders spanked Jakarie again, she said.

Reid's defense team didn't present any evidence pertaining to a prior child services case.

She pleaded with jurors, "Help me out, and hear my story."

Reid sobbed when asked questions by the prosecution and denied causing any of her son's injuries.

Jurors are set to begin deliberations in the case Thursday.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Macon mom charged with fatally beating child: 'I didn't kill my son' ."