A woman charged in March with killing and secretly burying her one-month-old son in Druid Hill Park pled guilty and was sentenced on January 19th to a suspended sentence of ten years in prison. Twenty-nine-year-old Lakesha Haynie was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, but had originally been chared with first-degree murder and child abuse following the death of her son Rajahnthon.

According to court records, Haynie's four other children had been removed from her home due to neglect, and she avoided delivering Rajahnthon in a hospital for fear she would lose custody of the baby. A prosecutor's account to Baltimore Circuit Judge Charles J. Peters after "extensive negotiations" with the defendant's Maryland criminal lawyer indicated that Haynie confessed the details of the boy's death to his father Soleme Smith, admitting to having accidentally suffocated the child while covering his mouth to stop his crying. Haynie lead Smith to her son's shallow grave in the park, removing and cradling the boy's body before reburying him.

Smith attempted but failed to persuade Haynie to report the crime to authorities for two weeks, eventually alerting police to the crime himself. The baby's body was found in the grave in a tethered bag, and injuries to the body indicated that the child had suffered a skull fracture two to three days before his death which would cause "changes in behavior that would have been apparent to an attentive parent." Manner of death for the infant was declared to be a homicide. During questioning, Haynie told police she had "found the baby dead in bed" and speculated that Smith had rolled over on the baby, killing him.

In addition to the ten-year suspended sentence, Haynie was sentenced to five years probation, forbidden from having contact with children under the age of seven, and ordered to report any future pregnancies to the Department of Social Services. Judge Peters told the defendant, who had been jailed from the time of her March arrest, that "[the] court will not hesitate to put [her] in jail" should she be found in violation of any of the terms handed down.

This blog post was published by the law firm Price Benowitz LLP. The firm has attorneys in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. For more information about their attorneys, please visit the Virginia Criminal Attorney and Washington DC DUI Attorney websites.

Just weeks after three crew members were found with $65,000 worth of drugs onshore, $94,000 worth of cocaine and heroin were located by drug-sniffing dogs on the Enchantment of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise liner docked in Baltimore. A search on January 8th by US Customs and Border Protection located about a pound of cocaine and a pound and a half of heroin aboard the Enchantment.

According to the Maryland criminal lawyer representing one of the crew members, The Enchantment had just returned to port, after a twelve-day cruise with stops in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Tortola.

In the original bust on December 18th, crew member Gavin Excell was found to be concealing quantaties of heroin and cocaine on his person after the boat docked. Excell implicated fellow crew members John Swart Garth and Kishurn Neptune, both twenty-seven years-old, and said the three had purchased the contraband while the ship was in port in the Dominican Republic.

In a statement, the cruise company says that they intend to comply with law enforcement efforts to investigate drug smuggling aboard their ships:

"[Royal Caribbean] continues to cooperate fully with authorities during their investigation of crew members onboard Enchantment of the Seas suspected of smuggling drugs. We continue to provide any assistance necessary to prosecute these individuals to the fullest extent of the law... Royal Caribbean International maintains a strict zero tolerance policy regarding illegal drugs on its ships. We take various steps to prevent the transport of illegal narcotics, including working closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection."

The contraband was located inside an employee locker, and law enforcement agents did not say whether they believed the two drug busts were linked. No further arrests have been made following the second discovery. All three men were indicted on charges of conspiring to import drugs.

This post is published by Price Benowitz LLP. Our attorneys represent clients in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. For more information about the firm and its lawyers, please visit the Virginia Criminal Attorney and Washington DC Criminal Attorney websites.