Editor’s note: This story was updated June 2024
An Atlanta mother charged in the death of her 6-month-old daughter was sentenced to 10 years in prison after taking a plea deal.
Doneish’a Speight was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and cruelty to children in the second degree after allegedly beating her daughter, Angel at her apartment in Carey Park. Speight also received five years probation as part of an Alford Plea, which allows her to maintain her innocence.
Speight called 911 on Oct. 1 to report that her daughter was unresponsive inside the apartment at 2500 Center Street in northwest Atlanta, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The child was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:33 p.m., about an hour and a half after officers responded to the scene.
Hospital staff said they were unable to get Angel’s temperature because her body was too cold, an indication she had been dead for an extended period of time.
“Additionally, (they) noticed bruising around the neck of Angel which Doneish’a claimed was from Angel touching her own neck,” the warrant added.
Speight told police that she and Angel had been alone outside of a brief visit by the child’s father the evening of Sept. 30 and his aunt earlier on Oct. 1. She said Angel was acting normal throughout the day, but she noticed the child wasn’t breathing normally around noon, according to the warrant.
An autopsy performed two days later by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Angel had bruising on her neck, top of her skull and both cheeks, along with a subdural hemorrhage and swelling of the brain and hemorrhage on her left optical nerve, the warrant stated. Police said the injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma.
After prosecutors explained those injuries and findings to Speight, police said she denied purposely harming her daughter. The mother then grabbed a stuffed animal and demonstrated what she said happened: that she was cleaning her child’s room and accidentally caused Angel to hit her head on her crib’s railing, the warrant stated. Speight told police the incident happened while she was arguing on the phone with the father of one of her other children.
“Doneish’a’s account of how Angel was injured, and the possible injury Angel would have suffered, was inconsistent with the findings of the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office,” the warrant stated. “Additionally, Doneish’a’s explanation did not account for the length of time in which Angel was deceased, which was several hours before 911 was called.”
Police said Speight allegedly caused “excessive physical pain” and the death of her child through blunt force trauma to Angel’s head and face. Arrest warrants were obtained for felony murder and first-degree cruelty to children, but were later reduced to involuntary manslaughter and to second-degree. She was booked into the Fulton County Jail, online records show.
According to the warrant, the alleged incident occurred sometime between 8 p.m. Sept. 30 and 1:09 p.m. Oct. 1.
In a separate incident at the same complex, a 2-month-old boy was found dead just weeks earlier. On Sept. 16, officers were called around 2:35 p.m. after Emerson Jackson became unresponsive. The baby was taken to Children’s Hughes Spalding Hospital and pronounced dead, police said.
On Monday afternoon, an investigator with the county medical examiner’s office said his cause and manner of death had not been determined.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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