Iesha Harris Detroit babysitter charged with child abuse and murder after throwing scalding hot water on Harmoni Henderson, autistic 3 year old girl. Mom, Paris England said she was a trusted family friend.
Define trust? A Detroit babysitter is accused of deliberately throwing boiling hot water over a 3 year old girl before slamming her head against a bathtub, killing her.
Iesha Harris, 30, was charged with murder and first-degree child abuse after non verbal autistic girl, Harmoni Henderson, was found dead on Monday.
Harmoni’s mother Paris England left her at Harris home in Detroit overnight, as she was a trusted family friend who often looked after the toddler.
Babysitter lied to parent about what had happened
But instead of watching her, Harris locked the little girl in a room with her own one-year-old daughter and smoked marijuana for three hours with friends in another part of the house.
At some point, the babysitter became enraged when she returned to find Harmoni had vomited on herself and needed to be cleaned up.
Harris during questioning, allegedly told detectives that she poured ‘scalding hot water‘ over the girl’s face and head ‘in a bid’ to clean her off.
She then allegedly smashed the toddler’s head into the side of a bathtub, assistant prosecutor Jennifer Douglas said.
England video-called Harris for an update and was shown Harmoni in bed and told she fell down the stairs and bumped her head but was fine.
‘From my knowledge, it was just a fall down the stairs – that she just missed her step, and that’s all it was. She told me everything was OK,’ England said.
3 year old was already dead by the time mom came by next morning
‘I seen her through the video chat, she was OK.’
England came to Harris’ house the next morning, expecting to pick up her daughter, only to find her unresponsive in bed.
‘She was already dead from the moment that I got there. She was gone.’
They rushed Harmoni to hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.
Harris did not call London or 911 at any point, as the girl lay in bed dying through the night.
‘She was having a hard time. My baby is autistic, nonverbal,’ England told Local 4 News.
‘I think she got frustrated with her and her own daughter and she slammed my baby’s head against the tub.
‘I would never in one million years [think] she would do this to my baby. Even if you think you trust the person, you can’t.’
‘I done crying so much …’
Harris was arrested on Thursday and charged the same day as Harmoni’s ceremonial viewing, FOX2Detroit reported.
The babysitter was denied bail as the judge considered her a danger to other children.
She was charged the same day as Harmoni’s ceremonial viewing.
This week, her dad Marquise Henderson had to read his daughter’s autopsy report.
‘Blunt force trauma,’ Marquise said. ‘Blunt force trauma. A three year-old autistic baby.’
‘I done cried so much, I don’t even know if there’s no more tears left in there,’ the father told the outlet.
