Mother arrested after infant found to be ‘gravely ill due to life-threatening starvation’: Baker County deputies

Sheriff’s Office: 21-year-old charged with multiple counts of child neglect with & without great bodily harm

A mother was arrested after an infant was taken to a hospital to be treated for life-threatening injuries, the Baker County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Haylee Kent, 21, is charged with multiple counts of child neglect with and without great bodily harm, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office said it learned on April 16 that an 8-month-old was being treated at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville for life-threatening injuries.

Detectives said they learned that the infant had been taken to the hospital by his grandmother after she noticed that he was severely underweight.

“Medical staff described the child’s general appearance as gravely ill due to life-threatening starvation, which resulted in the 8-month-old infant weighing the average weight of a 2-month-old,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

The Sheriff’s Office said the infant was also found to have suffered a skull fracture at some point prior to being admitted to the hospital.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the mother of the child did not visit the hospital or cooperate with the Department of Children and Families during its investigation, however, Kent did agree to meet with detectives several days after the incident was reported. On April 19, Kent met with detectives for a follow-up interview, and as a result of that conversation, she was arrested on the child neglect charges, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Through the investigation, according to detectives, they found that the child suffered a “pattern of neglect since the day he was born.” Detectives said this included a lack of necessary medical attention, malnourishment and failure to provide a safe home environment.

“During her final interview, Kent told detectives she felt the way her child needed to be fed was sometimes annoying, so she just opted not to do so,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

There was outrage after the Sheriff’s Office made the social media post about the arrest. Among those outraged was Tami Mann, who said she’s known Kent for five years.

“Doing this to a baby, it’s unacceptable,” Mann told News4JAX by phone. “Not feeding him is unacceptable.”

Mann said she remembers Kent being very happy about being pregnant, so it’s heartbreaking to see her now being accused of neglecting the child.

“If she was so happy to get pregnant, I don’t understand how this could’ve ever had happened?” Mann said.

The Sheriff’s Office said the infant is recovering, gaining weight and has been placed in foster care.

Records show Kent’s family lives in a Jacksonville neighborhood. On Monday, News4JAX went to their home address and asked them for comment, but they declined. We reached out by phone, as well, but there was no answer.


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