Eudora foster mother of dead toddler released on bond
Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
A Eudora woman was out on bond Tuesday after being arrested the day before on a first-degree battery charge in the death of her 22-month-old foster daughter, one of four foster children who died this summer.
An arrest affidavit for Eleisha Sykes, 35, says that she was alone with Keyundra Smith for several hours May 28, the day the toddler died of apparent brain injuries consistent with “shaken-baby syndrome.”
Keyundra’s 5-year-old sister, also a foster child of Sykes’, told Department of Human Services employees that Sykes “whooped Keyundra for poo-pooing in the bed that morning,” the affidavit says. Keyundra also had bruises on her sides, back, buttocks and legs.
One was in the shape of a hand.
Sykes’ attorney, Robert Bridewell, said Tuesday that his client maintains her innocence.
“She was so excited about this little girl,” Bridewell said, adding that Sykes and her husband’s biological children are all boys. “She’s just been devastated over this... even more so to find out that now she’s been charged.”
Bridewell said that Sykes voluntarily went to court in Chicot County on Monday to be arrested and face the charge. The judge set her bail at $ 20, 000. No new court date has been set.
Bridewell said she had no previous criminal history and is a “very dedicated mother.”
Thomas Deen, the 10 th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, said he didn’t want to go into details about why the charge was first-degree battery rather than murder. Both charges carry the same possible sentence of 10 to 40 years or life because of Keyundra’s age, he said.
Act 622 of 2007 makes the crime a Class Y felony because Keyundra was under the age of 4, Deen said. This is the first such case Deen has handled under the recently changed law.
“It’s a helpful change,” he said.
The arrest affidavit says that Sykes and her husband had been fostering Keyundra and her three siblings (ages 5, 3 and 2, according to Bridewell ) for about two months. Bridewell said Sykes’ other three children are 10, 7 and 3.
Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said that in allegations of serious abuse such as this one, all children are removed immediately and placed in other homes pending the outcome of the investigation.
Human Services’ Children and Family Services Division oversees foster care in the state.
The morning Keyundra died, the affidavit notes, Sykes had decided to keep the girl home from day care because she had been coughing and was congested.
Sykes’ husband, Derrick Sykes, told investigators that when he left that morning, Keyundra was sleeping in her bed.
Eleisha Sykes told investigators that she left Keyundra in the master bedroom to go to the kitchen. Keyundra, she said, was standing on the end of the bed. When Sykes returned, she said, Keyundra was on the floor and wasn’t breathing.
When asked later about the bruises on Keyundra’s back and legs, Sykes said they may have come from a fall that Keyundra had two days earlier.
But Sykes’ oldest son told investigators that Keyundra had not fallen. Other children in the house described Sykes as the disciplinarian, the affidavit says.
Sykes admitted spanking the children but told investigators it was mostly on the hands.
Munsell said she could not talk about Sykes or Keyundra because of a departmental investigation.
All foster parents must pass criminal and background checks, Munsell said. They also are subject to a review of their finances, home environment, and family dynamic.
Asked about the number of children allowed in one home, Munsell said agency policy permits more than five children in a home that includes foster children when all the foster children are siblings.
Information about the three other deaths in foster care in May and June, all unrelated to Keyundra’s, was unavailable. Munsell said investigations into those deaths also continue.
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