Arkansas mom who starved newborn son arrested after infant daughter is found dead with child seat buckle 'in her throat'
HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS: An Arkansas woman who had previously dodged jail time after being convicted of starving her newborn son has now been arrested in connection to the death of her infant daughter who was reportedly choked by a child-seat buckle.
The death came to light after Hot Springs police responded to the Snyder Street residence of 22-year-old Summer Rose Kazzee on August 17 on reports of an unresponsive child, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Hot Springs Fire Department Personnel were already at the scene performing CPR on the nine-month-old infant, who was later transported to National Park Medical Center for further treatment. But despite the best efforts of doctors, she could not be saved and was declared dead a short time later.
When questioned about the death at the hospital, Kazzee told detective Mark Fallis that she had tried putting her twins, including the young girl, down for a nap at a rear bedroom in her residence but that the nine-month-old kept getting off the bed.
She said she eventually put the infant in her old car seat on the floor next to the bed to get her to take a nap. After she strapped the top and bottom straps, her daughter was reportedly "rocking herself to sleep."
She said she then left the bedroom and went to the living room which was a "considerable distance" away. She claimed she checked on her daughter twice in the next 1.5 hours and that, on both occasions, she was fine and "even clapping hands."
She said she ran to the room when she couldn't hear her anymore at around 5 pm, which was when she found her unresponsive in the car seat with "the thing in her throat."
Kazzee was arrested on Thursday, November 7, at around 11 am on a misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide in connection to the death, and was being held on a $5,000 bond.
However, it was reported that she was also being held on a zero bond parole hold stemming from her conviction for first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor on January 24, 2018.
On that occasion, she was found guilty of allowing her newborn son to starve under her care in 2016 following a two-day trial and sentenced to three years in prison but later paroled.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on her most recent charges on November 18 in Garland County District Court.