Bad Things Happening To Kids, v.2009.1.10

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In the first case, Arielle Smith, 19, is accused of killing Andre Jenkins, 5 months old, on Sept. 11. Smith was watching the infant, his 18-month-old brother, and her 1-year-old son in her home at 512 MacArthur Drive. She was caring for the two brothers for her friend, who was at work, authorities said.

"She was trying to watch something on television," Assistant District Attorney Amanda Calogero said. "She put the two older kids in a room, and she put the baby in the dryer" and turned it on.

During the three minutes Andre was in the dryer, he suffered skull fractures and extensive burns, Calogero said. The baby died at the scene, she said.

Smith initially told detectives that a pot of boiling water fell on the infant, Calogero said. She changed her story to say she hid Andre in the dryer as they played a game of hide-and-seek and that her son must have turned the dryer on.

Pressed further by detectives, Smith admitted that the children "were rambunctious and interfering with her television show," according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office probable-cause affidavit.

Smith told detectives she removed clothing from the dryer, put the child in it and started the machine. Smith later removed the unresponsive baby, put the clothing back in the dryer and called her boyfriend and the baby's mother before calling authorities, according to the affidavit. Paramedics found the baby on Smith's living room floor with burns on his face, head, arms, legs and feet.
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