ROSEVILLE, Mich. – A Roseville babysitter accused of abusing a 23-month-old boy has been charged with murder following the child’s death.
Kimora Launmei Hodges, 21, of Roseville, was previously charged with first-degree child abuse after she admitted to physically abusing the boy, according to authorities.
On Wednesday, police said they were working to enhance the charge against Hodges after the boy died from his injuries. She was arraigned Thursday on a charge of felony murder and is being held without bond, officials said.
Police said the 23-month-old child was abused sometime between 3:30 p.m. and midnight on June 13 at a home in the 30000 block of Little Mack Avenue in Roseville. Officers were called to a nearby hospital after the boy was admitted with severe head trauma, they said.
The boy’s mother said she had picked her son up from Hodges, her neighbor, who had been babysitting him while his mother was at work. Hodges had been watching the child on and off for two months, according to authorities.
Hodges told the mother that the boy didn’t look normal, so the mother called 911 and had an ambulance sent to the apartment, officials said.
The child was taken to the hospital and had emergency surgery, authorities said. He later died from his injuries, police announced Wednesday.
Hodges was arrested, and she admitted to detectives that she had physically abused the child, according to authorities.
She was originally charged with first-degree child abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office enhanced that charge to felony murder.
Hodges was previously being held at the Macomb County Jail on $250,000 bond, but now that this is a murder case, bond has been denied by a 39th District Court judge.
Hodges is scheduled to return to court at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday (June 29).
