WOMAN CONVICTED FOR MURDER OF BOYFRIEND'S 4-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IN HER CARE
A 33-year-old woman named Shawna Hooey has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering her boyfriend's 4-year-old daughter Jakyzia Alexander. As reported by PEOPLE, Hooey rushed Jakyzia into the Emergency Room with the girl having a visible black eye and other injuries back in 2019. The press release shared by Harris County also claimed that the girl's body had already turned "cold" by the time she arrived for medical assistance. The staff asked the woman about how the girl ended up in such a condition, but Hooey constantly changed her statements, and fueled suspicion among officials.
In addition to four children of her own Hooey was also responsible for Jakyzia, since her father had recently moved in with the woman. But Jakyzia's father though did not stay in the house as he had to be away for work on most days. “Because of his work schedule, Jakyzia’s father stayed with family members who lived closer to his workplace and seldom saw his daughter,” the release states. “He did not see her for at least two months before her death, except through video calls.” The child's biological mother was also not in the picture, as Jakyzia's father had sole physical custody.
Turns out things had been tough for Jakyzia for a long time as she was wearing long sleeves during the summer months, but nobody bothered to probe further. “Child abuse does happen, and when we see it, we need to call it out and notify the police and child protective services,” Assistant District Attorney Gilbert Sawtelle said. “This girl was wearing long sleeves in the summertime—and if someone had noticed her injuries and intervened, she would probably still be here today.”
After Hooey was questioned in the hospital, she made up numerous different stories, and claimed that Jakyzia woke up taking deep, labored breaths and wasn't acting normally. Seeing her condition Hooey drove her around in a heated car to help her breathe better. But, when that didn't have any effect on the child, she drove home, changed, and took Jakyzia to the emergency clinic.
But then Hooey came up with another story that the girl ran into a doorknob and fell unconscious after throwing herself against a toilet paper holder. The autopsy contradicted all of her statements, and the cause of death was found to be "blunt force trauma to the head," which led to seizures and other similar reactions, but not unconsciousness. The medical examiner also noted "signs of repeated past abuse, including injuries that were fresh, some that were resolving and others that were healed.”
The woman was arrested and charged with murder. On April 3, she was sentenced to 50 years in prison. “We have to work together as a community to protect our children who are particularly vulnerable to abuse from violent adults,” County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “We are thankful to the jurors who recognized that this was not a single incident, but a pattern of abuse and rightfully sentenced this woman to spend decades behind bars.”
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.