A 21-year-old Mississippi mother was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after she admitted to repeatedly slamming her 2-month-old daughter on the concrete in what the district attorney said was an “unexplainable and heinous crime.”
According to a news release from Bubba Bramlett, the district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties, several witnesses claimed to have seen Makaylia Shaylynn Jolley “grabbing a baby by the ankles and slamming the child” on May 12, 2022.
After being admitted to the hospital, the infant, Khalysie Lashay Jolley, passed away two days later from her wounds. According to Bramlett, she suffered from abrasions, haemorrhages in her eyes, extensive skull fractures, fractures to her left thumb and right elbow, and swelling and bleeding in her brain.
Her death was ruled a homicide as a result of blunt force injuries to the head, Bramlett said.
“Makaylia Jolley took Khalysie by the ankles, slammed her into the pavement multiple times and then left her there,” Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Newman said, according to NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson, Mississippi.
Rankin County Circuit Judge Steve Ratcliff sentenced Jolley on Monday after she pleaded guilty to capital murder. She said very little during the sentencing, telling Ratcliff “no, sir,” and yes, sir,” when he questioned her, WLBT reported.
Bramlett told the station that Jolley will “never get out of prison, under any circumstance.”
“She will die in prison one day,” he said.
Jolley’s lawyer could not be reached for comment at this time.
Pearl police got numerous 911 calls regarding Jolley’s severe assault on the day of the incident. District Attorney’s Office: Jolley “slammed the baby down and left her lying in the road,” and that was the information provided to police when they arrived.
After that, she fled into the woods and was apprehended there.
According to Bramlett’s office, Jolley admitted to authorities that she had injured her child but claimed it was an accident. She admitted to the police not knowing why she had injured her kid. According to WLBT, she had used narcotics the morning before the event.
Last November, a grand jury in Rankin County charged her with capital murder.
Instead of pursuing the death penalty as originally planned, the district attorney made Jolley a plea agreement. She was given the plea deal, according to WLBT, in part to save witnesses, relatives, and law enforcement officials from having to relive what happened.
“Law enforcement, the EMTs, the firefighters, there were innocent people. … The apartment owner witnessed it. The victim’s grandmother witnessed it. A truck driver witnessed it. A sweet lady who was going to call on a patient and just happened to be dropping by saw these terrible things,” Newman said. “I don’t believe you can ever get those images out of your mind.”
Those bystanders, Bramlett said in the news release, “will never forget.”
