DISCLAIMER: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
HOUMA, La. (WGNO)— A Louisiana couple has been indicted in connection to the death of two-year-old Ezekiel Harry, the Houma toddler who was found dead in a trash can last month.
According to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, Harry’s mother, Maya Jones, and her boyfriend Jermaine Robinson, have both been charged with first-degree murder and obstruction of justice. Additionally, the two are being held on bonds totaling $5.1 million in relation to the child’s death.
Jones and Robinson were arrested on July 12 after detectives say Robinson filed a police report claiming her son had been abducted near Main Street in Houma. When contacted by Houma Police, Jones reportedly told investigators that she was walking along Bayou Terrebonne with her children when a suspect in a gray truck passed the family, swiped the two-year-old, and drove away.
Police later discovered Jones’ claims were inaccurate, proving true when Harry’s remains were found inside a garbage can in Houma later that evening. The child’s remains had first been placed in a duffel bag — reportedly the same duffel bag Jones and Robinson were seen handling on surveillance footage captured the day of Harry’s death. The two were then arrested.
An autopsy report later revealed that Harry died of blunt force trauma, something parish District Attorney Joseph Waitz Jr. says was, unfortunately, not the first time the child had been abused.
“We are aware of abusive patterns in the past involving this young child,” Waitz said in a press conference later that week. “Some of the stuff that early on investigations show just shocks the conscious, that this type of abuse would go on.”