Nakia Martin, Muncie, Indiana woman charged with capital murder after drowning her friend’s 4 year old during home baptism while babysitting friend’s 3 kids. Siblings had complained struggling to breathe while placed underneath water.
‘God would show them something ….’ An Indiana woman babysitting a close friend’s children at her home in Texas has been charged with murder after drowning one of the friend’s three kids during a home baptism.
Nakia Martin, 39, of Muncie, IN, is alleged to have drowned her friend’s 4 year old after deciding to baptize the three children one after the other in the bathtub.
According to the victim’s siblings, a six year old and an 8 year old, who witnessed the drowning, Martin allegedly submerged the 4 year old underwater until they stopped moving. The babysitter is alleged to have then laid naked with the child in the bathtub, not calling 911 until the next morning.
‘Ranting about God….’
An arrest affidavit described Martin applying lotion on the deceased child and dressing the child before proceeding to lay next to the unresponsive 4-year-old in the center of the room until the following morning.
When emergency crews arrived on scene, the 4-year-old was cold to the touch, FOX59 reported.
‘I killed a kid,’ Martin told responding officers. Adding, ‘(I) didn’t mean to kill this baby.’
The incident according to court documents is alleged to have occurred on the morning of Sept. 9, 2023. An autopsy report released on Feb. 8, 2024, determined that the deceased 4-year-old dying from drowning. It wasn’t until a further ten months later that charges were filed against Martin on Dec. 6, 2024.
Martin was arrested in Indiana in December 2024 and extradited to Houston prior to the new year.
Martin has since been charged with capital murder. In Texas, capital murder carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole or even a death sentence.
Muncie babysitter story quickly unravels
During initial police questioning on the morning of Sept. 9, 2023 — Martin told responding officers that she had bathed the child at roughly 8 p.m. the night before and then found the 4-year-old with foam coming out of the child’s mouth in the morning. Martin claimed she tried to open the child’s mouth only to claim it was completely shut. She then noticed the child was cold to the touch and called a family member before ultimately calling 911.
The child was pronounced dead at 12:48 p.m.
But the story quickly began to unravel. Police were able to contact the children’s mother, who had returned to Indiana and asked Martin to watch her children while she went out of town. The mother said her children told her that Martin had been baptizing them in the bathtub, holding them underwater until they struggled to breathe.
During questioning, the surviving children told investigators how Martin put ‘blessing oils’ on their necks and threatened them ‘with hell’ if they spoke about the baptisms in the bathtub.
‘Something happened, the devil,’ the 8 year old sibling reportedly told police.
The children’s mother told police that Martin had been acting strangely and ‘ranting about God.’ She also mentioned how Martin had told her children that ‘God would show them something.’
When the mother last spoke to Martin, she had been FaceTiming with the babysitter and saw all three children in the tub. All were alive at that point.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Martin is currently being held in jail in Harris County. Her bond was set at $2 million. Martin is scheduled to next appear in court later this month.
