Less than 24 hours after 5-month-old Baby Dinah was removed from life support and pronounced dead, both her parents were charged with murdering her.
The decision on Tuesday to upgrade the charges against Justin Lee Whited and Jamie Cason Whited was more sadness heaped on a family that is mourning Dinah and worried about the legal road ahead.
“I can’t understand why she’s charged with the same charge (as Justin Whited),” said Paige Cason-Barrett, Jamie Whited’s mother and Dinah’s grandmother. "I’m pretty much devastated. I’m just trying to mourn Dinah the way she should be mourned.”
Jamie didn't do anything wrong, Cason-Barrett said.
Justin Whited’s mother was struggling with the same conflicting emotions.
“I don’t think he would ever hurt his children,” said Kimberlee Page, Justin Whited’s mother. “We miss Dinah very much and we love our son. We hope when the trial starts everything comes out. We just want the truth to come out. We love our son.”
Until Tuesday, Justin Whited was only charged with assaulting the baby. The infant’s mother was charged with child cruelty for allegedly not protecting her daughter.
“It’s all too much,” Cason-Barrett said. “I don’t know what to think that they’ve escalated the charges to the same as Justin’s.”
She said Jamie Whited was “devastated” by the death of daughter and “she’s trying to mourn.”
When the then 7-week-old baby was brought to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston on April 23, doctors found old injuries as well as new ones. Deputy Chief District Attorney Cliff Howard said during a June 8 hearing that doctors said Dinah “had been abused pretty much every day of her life.”
Doctors who treated the baby at Egleston said the infant had bleeding on the brain, two broken collar bones and all but three of her ribs had been broken.
"I am relieved the charge is murder and not a lesser charge," said Melinda Quinn, a member of the child welfare advisory board in Walton County. "Dinah deserves her day in court.
Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney Layla Zon secured the arrest warrants Tuesday, charging both parents with felony murder because the infant had died. Even though the mother has not been accused of actually beating the infant, Georgia law allows her to be charged with murder as a party to the crime.
The two Whiteds were in jail when they were served with the new charge.
Neither has been indicted yet, and more charges could be brought if a grand jury votes to indict.
Both parents say they did not abuse their baby.
Dinah was 7 weeks old when her father called Monroe police to report his daughter was having trouble breathing. She was quickly life-flighted to Egleston.
The baby had been been on life support since.
Facing the possibility of a murder charge, Justin Whited refused to give permission to remove his daughter from life support even though his wife wanted to allow their child to die. But he agreed to let her die last Wednesday during an emotional hearing in juvenile court after seeing a video of his comatose daughter and speaking with his wife.
That was when Walton County Juvenile Court Judge David Dickinson issued the order to remove "all life support measures, and to allow Dinah Paige Whited to die." Dickinson noted in his order the baby had "catastrophic brain injuries and multiple broken bones" that seemed to be the result of abuse.
On Monday morning, first both sets of grandparents were allowed to spend 15 minutes with their granddaughter. Then the parents came in, separately, for 30 minutes at her bedside before the machines were turned off at 12:06 p.m.
Both parents were there when Dinah was pronounced dead almost 3 1/2 hours later.
The both sets of grandparents are now focused on getting custody of Dinah’s 2-year-old brother, who is currently in the care of the Department of Family and Children Services.
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