21yo woman, accused of ‘throwing 23-month-old boy into the wall and shaking him up pretty bad’ while babysitting him, faces upgraded charges after the toddler died due to the injuries sustained in the incident

Parents sometimes have a hard time finding someone to babysit their children, and choosing the right person for the job is very important, especially when it comes to babies and toddlers. The mother of a 23-month-old baby had clearly made the wrong choice when she decided to hire a 21-year-old babysitter to take care of her toddler because the babysitter now faces felony murder charges for beating her son that led to his death.

According to WDIV, which reported on the case in late June, K. Hodges, 21, was initially arrested and charged with first-degree child abuse after admitting to physically abusing the toddler in a mid-June incident.The boy initially suffered serious injuries and was immediately transferred to a hospital for treatment, but despite doctors’ efforts, he died about a week later. After the boy’s death, Hodges was charged with felony murder.

The boy’s mother, Taylor, spoke to FOX2 and explained to the public what had happened while Hodges was babysitting her son. According to her, the babysitter was someone she trusted and thought the child was safe while in Hodges’ care since she had been babysitting him several times prior to the incident that happened on June 13th.

Taylor said she left her son in the care of Hodges at Hodges’ home in Roseville, Mich. the night of June 13th. But early the next morning, Taylor received a text from the babysitter about the way the boy was sleeping. Hodges reportedly told the mother that the little Kyrie had eaten soap and was having an allergic reaction. In a matter of minutes, the mother arrived at Hodges’ home and she immediately called 911 after she noticed that her son was having ‘seizure, after seizure, after seizure as he was lying on the ground.’

The boy was immediately transferred to a hospital for treatment. Per the hospital report, the boy suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and he was bleeding out his ears and had to have immediate brain surgery. “All I know is she threw my son into the wall and shook him up pretty bad and they (the police) said that’s just a bit of what she did to him,” Taylor told FOX2 before her son’s death.

The local authorities later confirmed that Hodges was Taylor’s neighbor, her long-time friend and babysitter, and that that night she had been babysitting the toddler while the mother was at work. Hodges had been watching the child on and off for two months, according to authorities. Nothing indicated that Hodges was about to hurt the boy. The motive still remains unknown.

Despite the brain surgery, the boy had no brain activity during his stay at the hospital. About a week after he was admitted to the hospital, the boy was pronounced dead. This month, the boy would have turned 2. Hodges is now charged with murder and being held in jail without bond.

“I’m only 18,” Taylor said before the boy died. “I don’t have a mom or a dad. It’s just me and my baby. I’m hurt. I’m so hurt she did this to me. I would have never done this to her and her baby.”

Taylor’s GoFundMe campaign raised more than $77,000 of a $17,500 goal as of the writing of this article.