A DeKalb County woman who was arrested on child cruelty charges after her 1-year-old was found unresponsive in the bathtub last week has now been charged with murder following the girl’s death, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Ronica Jones, 27, was taken into custody Nov. 7 on one count of second-degree child cruelty, according to a DeKalb arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The warrant said Jones had two children, ages 1 and 3, in the tub together when she left them temporarily unsupervised. When Jones returned, she found the 1-year-old under the water, the warrant said.
The girl was taken to a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta location, where her condition was considered critical, the warrant said. She died Monday night after four days in the hospital, Channel 2 reported.
According to the news station, Jones’ charges have been upgraded to second-degree murder. Under Georgia law, a second-degree murder charge applies to cases in which one person’s negligence leads to the death of another.
Jones’ family told Channel 2 she plans to fight the charges. Her father, Ronald Jones, gave the news station a version of events that conflicted with the affidavit in the original arrest warrant.
“She explained that she was bathing her and that she turned to get the towel, and when she turned back around she slipped and fell in the tub,” Ronald Jones said. “(She) called the ambulance to pick the baby up. That’s when they arrested her.”
The DeKalb District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that police are responsible for the initial charges against Ronica Jones and that her case will be reviewed before it is presented to a grand jury.
Jones was released from the DeKalb jail Saturday night and remains out of police custody.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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