A Michigan woman faces a murder charge after police say she buckled her 6-month-old son into a car seat and deprived him of food, water and air conditioning for days.
Lovily Kristine-Anwonette Johnson, 22, of Wyoming, was charged Monday with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in the death of Noah Johnson. MLive reported that Johnson brought Noah, who was already dead, to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital on Wednesday, July 19.
Johnson admitted to police investigators that she was Noah’s sole caregiver in the days before he died, authorities said. She also admitted that she was home several times a day during that time.
"She knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday morning," investigators wrote in an arrest affidavit, according to MLive. "During this time, Noah remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnson's apartment, with no air conditioning."
Noah had been dead for some time when Johnson brought him to the hospital, police said.
Johnson’s 2-year-old daughter was placed Friday under the supervision of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Johnson’s Facebook page bears a caption: “Family, faith, love & success.” In photos of her children from January, when Noah was born, she called them her “prince and princess.”
Other posts appear to allude to relationship problems. One thread from May begins with Johnson saying, “If you can walk away from someone and act as they never meant anything to you, they never did.”
Commenters who found the public post since Johnson’s arrest in connection to her son’s death expressed anger and pointed out the irony of the post.
“Like you left your hungry baby in a car seat upstairs in a house with no AC for four days?” one woman wrote.
At the time of her arrest, Johnson was on probation for an embezzlement charge, according to the Detroit Free Press. She was convicted in 2016 of embezzling less than $200 from a business in Wyoming, a suburb of Grand Rapids.
Along with her probation, she was ordered to pay $455 in fines and court costs and to perform 40 hours of community service, the Free Press said. A judge issued a warrant for probation violation on Thursday, citing Johnson's failure to pay her fines, her failure to perform community service and her failure to find a job.
Johnson is being held without bond at the Kent County Correctional Facility.
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