CONWAY — The mother of a 6-year-old Conway boy who died last week and who had been the subject of two previous child-welfare investigations was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder.
Shequena Williams, 26, was arrested in the Aug. 17 death of Javari Washington. She is being held without bail at the Faulkner County jail.
Javari died days after being taken to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, of injuries suffered Aug. 13.
Preliminary autopsy findings indicate Javari died of blunt-force head trauma, Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden said.
Vaden said he will ask for a high bail when Williams appears before a judge in Faulkner County Circuit Court, probably Friday by video from the county jail.
If convicted, Williams could face life in prison.
The Arkansas Departmentof Human Services has taken custody of two of Javari's siblings since his death, spokesman Julie Munsell said Wednesday.
Police learned of the boy's injuries after being contacted by the Crimes Against Children Division of the Arkansas State Police.
Javari's supervision had been investigated twice since July 2008 by the Arkansas Department of Human Services, according to the agency's Web site.
On July 18, 2008, the Web site says, Human Services openeda protectiveservices case because of inadequate supervision. That case was closed Nov. 7, 2008.
Another case was opened on March 11 of thisyear, this time because of educational neglect, the Web site says. That case was closed June 8.
Munsell declined to elaborate on the Web site's information, saying Conway police asked her agency not to comment further during their investigation.
Vaden said he does not allege that it was the mother's intent to kill her son. Rather, he contends that she "knowingly" caused the child's death.
"Any time you look at a childabuse case, you are looking not only for recent evidence of injury - in other words, new injury - but you're also looking to see whether there's old injury," Vaden said. "In any child-abuse case, you are looking to see if this is a pattern [of injuries] or if this is a one-time deal."
He declined to say whether Javari had old injuries.
The mother has a criminal history, but not a violent one, the prosecutor said. He did not know whether Williams has an attorney.
The Human Services Web site listed the allegation against Williams as "shaking a child" and the preliminary cause of death as "hematomas and cerebral edema," which refer to brain injuries.
Asked about the shaking allegation, Vaden said, "I do not believe this was a case of shaken baby."
Dr. Barry Gilmore, director of emergency services at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, said shaken-baby syndrome is most common in infants younger than 1 year old, but it can occur in children up to about age 5.
"We would never say that a child [who is older] couldn't be injured that way. We just see less of those potential shaking injuries," in part because older children are better developed physically, Gilmore said.
"It's much more difficult to just physically shake a much larger child to that degree," Gilmore added. "And older children with abusive injuries tend to have a combination of injuries, which makes it difficult to associate one thing above the other."
Arkansas, Pages 9, 11 on 08/27/2009