STANLEY, N.D. (WKRC) – A couple was arrested after they allegedly beat their 3-year-old foster child, who they believed had autism, to death as a tragic conclusion to a long streak of abuse.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, police were called to the home of 44-year-old Jamie Johnson and 62-year-old Raymond Johnson on March 19 after Jamie called 911 to report that their 3-year-old foster child was unresponsive. The child was immediately taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead, with the cause of death being ruled as blunt force trauma to the head, per the affidavit.
Jamie reportedly told police that the child fell down the stairs and suffered a head injury days before she called 911, but investigators found damning evidence for the contrary inside the house itself – on the family’s Ring cameras.
Although Jamie allegedly told police that the child would mark and scratch herself by hitting herself on walls, but video captured by the Ring cameras reportedly showed her “striking and punching” the girl on multiple occasions, the affidavit said. Officers also allegedly witnessed multiple other instances of abuse on the cameras, including one in which Jamie hit the girl with a spoon across different parts of her body, another in which she pulled her hair and caused the girl to hit her head into multiple pieces of furniture, and instances in which she would cover the girl’s moth and tell her to “shut up” when she was crying.
The children said that one thing that the girl would repeatedly get in trouble for was the way she ate and chewed her food. Police said that whenever the 3-year-old would try to fight back, Jamie would respond by punching and hitting her. The abuse was allegedly so bad that sometimes the child would lose consciousness from the beating and Jamie would have to use an ice pack to wake her up, the children told police.
The other foster children in the couple’s care described Jamie as the “meanest” of the parents and the orchestrater of the abuse, per the affidavit.
“It’s not easy, I get pretty crabby sometimes and then I feel like s–t for it,” Jamie reportedly said in a text message to her friend. “Honestly, if I knew how she was I might not have taken her.”
Raymond allegedly told police that he knew the abuse was going on, saying he “knew mom was punching, hitting, kicking, and choking, and watched it happen,” per the affidavit.
The pair were arrested and charged with murder, child abuse, and domestic violence resulting in serious bodily injury.