Photo: Garland County Jail
An Arkansas mother whose infant son was removed from her care after being starved in 2016 is once again behind bars after her 9-month-old daughter reportedly choked on a child car seat buckle and died.
On Jan. 24, 2018, Kazzee wasconvicted of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minorfor the 2016 starvation of her newborn son. She was sentenced to three years in prison but was later paroled, theRecordreports.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on Aug. 17, authorities responded to a home in Hot Springs for reports of an unresponsive child. Upon arrival, police found Hot Springs Fire Department personnel performing CPR on the 9-month-old victim (who had a twin). She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the paper reports.
During an interview with detectives, Kazzee said that at 3 p.m. she tried to put the twins down for a nap on a bed, but when the girl refused to stay on the bed, she placed her in a child’s car seat on the floor, the affidavit states.
Kazzee said she strapped both top and bottom straps of the seat and her daughter began “rocking herself to sleep.” She left the children in the bedroom, with the door closed, and went to the living room.
An hour and a half later, Kazzee went to check on the children and found her daughter rocking and “even clapping her hands,” the probable cause affidavit states.
But thirty minutes later, Kazzee said she couldn’t hear her daughter, so she “jumped off the couch” and ran back into the bedroom.
Kazzee told detectives she saw her daughter with the car seat’s top buckle in her throat. Panicking, Kazzee grabbed her daughter, took her outside and called for help.
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In a later interview, Kazzee said she had tied a blanket around the bottom buckle so her daughter “would not mess with it.” Kazzee said her daughter had never unbuckled the seat before.
Kazzee remains behind bars on a $5,000 bond for the homicide charge and a zero bond parole hold stemming from her 2018 conviction.
source: people.com
