PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Philadelphia woman has been held on third-degree murder charges for the beating death of a 3-year-old girl last summer, but the social worker who was also charged had murder offenses dismissed on Monday.
A doctor said Hope Jones had 70% of her little body covered with injuries, with contusions on her head, scars and bruises on her face, lips, chin and forehead, broken ear cartilage, old and new broken ribs, bruises on her chest, stomach, legs, and internal injuries including a wounded pancreas, and she was below the normal body temperature, with significant weight loss.
An officer called to the Southwest Philadelphia home on July 12 said he saw injuries all over the toddler’s body. He said when he was taking legal guardian Kiana Casey to the hospital, she told him Jones fell down the stairs while chasing another kid.
But prosecutors argue the child’s body, with both old and new scars, tell a different story, and point to Casey as the abuser. Jones had been taken from her family at 15 months old, and placed in Casey’s care.
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The child’s social worker, Jendayi Mawusi, was in the home for a welfare visit an hour before emergency responders were called to the home.
Most of the hours-long hearing focused on Mawusi and reports that she and her supervisors filed about the toddler’s care.
Mawusi’s attorney argued his client never should never have been charged with third-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, and said two doctors who fully checked the child’s body never alerted authorities, adding that Mawusi isn’t directly involved in the child’s death.
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In the end, the judge agreed, but held the social worker on endangering the welfare of a child. Casey was held on the third-degree murder charges, despite her attorney arguing that there were no witnesses saying she laid hands on the 3-year-old.
Both women face formal arraignment next month, before they head to the trial phase of the case.
Pat Loeb contributed to this report.