Baby Denied Food, Left In Car Seat For Days, Dies In Hot Apartment: Police

WYOMING, MI — Court records in a western Michigan murder case paint a horrific picture of the final days of 6-month-old Noah Edward Johnson’s young life. His mother strapped him in a car seat and then went about life, neither feeding nor caring for the infant for days until he died in her sweltering, un-air conditioned apartment, investigators said.

Noah had a rough life from the beginning, when he was born with marijuana in his system, according to court records. He weighed just 12 pounds when Johnson took him to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids the afternoon of Wednesday, July 19. He had been dead for several days, a police detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit that resulted in felony murder and first-degree child abuse charges against Lovily K. Johnson, 22, of Wyoming. If convicted of abusing and killing her baby, Johnson faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Johnson was arrested hours after she dropped the baby off at the hospital, the Wyoming Department of Public Safety said in a news release. The baby died at Johnson’s apartment on the 2600 block of McKee Avenue SW, the release said. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Grand Rapids Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

On July 17, the last time Noah got a bottle, Johnson left him alone for 12 hours so she could smoke marijuana and get high with friends, investigators said. Johnson was gone for about eight hours the next day and didn’t return to the apartment until the morning of July 19, according to court records.

Investigators said Johnson “admitted smoking marijuana during that time.”

Johnson intentionally did not feed the baby, Wyoming police Detective Robert Meredith wrote in the affidavit filed in Kent County’s Wyoming District Court, where Johnson was arraigned by video Monday and denied bond by District Court Judge Steven M. Timmers, MLive.com reported.

Meredith wrote that Noah was “clearly deceased and had been for some time” when his mother took him to the hospital, WZZM-TV reported.

“Johnson . . . admitted that Noah was under her care and no one else’s care for the last four days,” he wrote. “Johnson admitted to being at home multiple times a day during that time frame. She knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday evening. During this time, Noah remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnson’s apartment with no air conditioning.’’

During the arraignment, Timmers asked Johnson twice if she understood the charges against her after she initially said she didn't.

“Well, let me make it really clear,” he said. “They alleged you killed a young child and that you physically abused it. Does that make sense to you?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

Johnson is also the mother of a 2-year-old daughter who was taken into custody by state child-welfare workers, WZZM reported. In 2016, she received a restraining order against the baby’s father, who pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic violence last fall. Johnson is on probation on an embezzlement conviction, the TV station said.

She is due back in court on Aug. 2.

Photo via Shutterstock