Mother Who Decapitated Baby Had Been Ordered To Stay Away From Her By The Court

The 20-year-old mother who decapitated her 3-month-old baby girl, Jayniah, had been ordered by a court to stay away from her while the mother sought psychiatric help. The baby had been placed with the mother’s aunt, where she had apparently been doing well, a prosecutor said.

Deasia Watkins had been forbidden to have contact with the baby after she was hospitalized for psychiatric problems, authorities said, and it was unclear how long after the baby’s birth that had happened. However, sources say that one week prior to the baby’s unimaginable death, the aunt had allowed the baby’s mother to move in with her, and was asleep when the murder occurred. She was unaware of the death of the baby until another male relative showed up with other children at her house to be dropped off to wait for a school bus, and a 5-year-old kindergartener made the grisly discovery of the baby’s body on the kitchen counter.

Not only had the infant been decapitated, but her torso had been stabbed several times with a knife. The 5-year-old ran back outside to the male relative for help, who called police. Police said the murder had been carried out with a large chef’s knife and the mother was found in a blood soaked bed. She was arrested and charged with aggravated murder.

Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said the Ohio death was a terribly tragedy.

“This is one of the most disturbing cases I have ever seen in my life.”

Deters said the mother had not spoken a word and was under psychiatric hold at the hospital being guarded at all times. He did not expect to seek the death penalty in the case, likely due to the mother’s psychiatric history.

The coroner who examined the infant’s body, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, said that it was one of the harder things he had seen as well, adding that the baby also had a broken arm in additional to her fatal injuries. Police said that the knife that had been used to kill the baby had been placed in her hand. Dr. Sammarco said it was a difficult thing to get through.

“These are images that will be indelibly marked in my memory.”

It is unknown how frequently social services had been checking on the family, or if the mother was currently receiving psychiatric care while at the aunt’s house. It is also unknown if the aunt was aware that the mother was awake with the baby while she was asleep.

[photo via Twitter]