A Florida mother has been arrested on a child abuse charge more than a year after her 3-month-old daughter was found unresponsive, seizing, and with her stomach covered in bruises.
Kelly Ward, 22, was arrested in Hillsborough County and brought back to Volusia County to face a child neglect causing great bodily harm charge, jail records show.
Police were called to Ward’s home in DeLand in November 2023, WESH reported. Ward and her then boyfriend, Richard Reid, were the last two adults seen with the baby, an arrest affidavit says.
The affidavit does not provide details of what happened that night, but doctors later said the child’s injuries were not natural and were, in fact, consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Medics say the infant has permanent brain damage and is on a feeding tube. He is unlikely to ever be able to see, walk, talk or perform basic functions.
The affidavit also says that Reid, who is not the child’s biological father, is facing charges in the case but did not say what those charges are or where he might be. He reportedly denied harming the baby and blamed the child’s injuries on rats.
Ward was booked into jail on August 4 and released on a $5,000 bond on August 9.
