Columbus mother said her infant died falling off the bed. Police jailed her instead.
A young Columbus mother is jailed without bond on charges of fatally injuring her 6-month-old daughter.
Shantra Denise Gates, 23, is charged with felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children in the Sept. 26 death of Ke’Niyah Gates, police said.
The baby was injured in September at Bull Creek Apartments, 17 Creek Way, but no charges were filed until an autopsy showed the child died from “non-accidental” bleeding in the brain, said police Sgt. Lorri Zieverink.
She said police were called Sept. 25 to the pediatric emergency unit at Piedmont Columbus Regional, where the baby was brought by ambulance. When officers arriving there found the staff carrying the child to a helicopter to be flown to the Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, she said.
Physicians in Atlanta performed surgery to try to relieve pressure caused by bleeding in the baby’s brain, before she died there, Zieverink said.
Zieverink said the mother told investigators she and a relative were bringing laundry into the apartment, and the relative set the laundry basket on the floor while she lay the baby on a bed.
When she left the room to get the laundry, the baby fell onto the floor, Zieverink said Gates told police. The mother comforted the child until she stopped crying, and went to bed, awaking at 7:20 a.m. to find the child still asleep, the officer said.
After the mother took a shower, she found the baby was having seizures, and texted the child’s father before calling 911, the investigator said.
She said Gates, who also has a 3-year-old, sent the infant’s father a text that read, “When these children are dead, you’re going to be sick.”
The bed the mother said the baby fell from was just over 40 inches off the floor, and doctors said the trauma was too extensive to have been caused by a fall from that height, Zieverink said.
Public defender Shaneka Terry repeatedly asked whether any doctor specifically said the baby’s injury could not have resulted from a fall. Zieverink said the autopsy’s classifying the trauma as “non-accidental” meant the fall could not have caused the trauma.
She said the baby had a fresh bruise about two inches across on her forehead, but it wasn’t clear whether that was related. The child had no other injuries that would indicate repeated abuse, Zieverink said.
With other testing yet to be conducted, a full autopsy report may not be completed for a year, the officer said.
Judge Susan Henderson sent the case to Muscogee Superior Court, where a judge may set a bond on Gates’ murder charge.
This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 11:59 AM.