Kalamazoo County Jail booking photos of Jose Roldan Jr. and Ladesha Powe
A couple in Michigan have been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter after police say their booze-soaked night ended with them suffocating their infant in between cushions in their sofa.
The child was just six months old.
Ladesha Ann Powe, 29, and Jose Roldan Jr., 40, according to a review of the criminal docket in Michigan’s Eighth Circuit, were charged on March 12, though the incident occurred last year. Powe and Roldan are charged with homicide involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse in the second degree. Powe was arraigned on April 3 and she appears next for a probable cause conference on April 17 before Judge Kathleen Hemingway. Roldan Jr. will be seen for a probable cause hearing on April 23 and unlike Powe, the docket shows that he already has an examination hearing scheduled for April 30.
Bond has been set for the couple at $100,000 cash/surety per person.
Attorneys for Powe and Roldan Jr. did not immediately respond to request for comment Monday.
Local CBS affiliate WWMT reported last week that police said Powe admitted to being “a lot far gone, wasted maybe, like, very, very wasted” after drinking five beers at her home last December. Then she said she fell asleep on the couch with her 6-month-old, Faith Hope Roldan, in her arms. The child’s father, Roldan Jr., reportedly admitted to police that he drank at least nine to 10 “tall boys,” or beers of roughly 25 ounces a piece.
He too told police he fell asleep on the couch, police said. The couple allegedly admitted to smoking marijuana before falling asleep as well.
Prosecutors have said that footage captured from inside the living room of the couple’s home appears to show Powe holding the child before the baby falls out of her arms and lands between Roldan Jr. and a couch cushion. Roldan Jr. then allegedly moved around on the sofa to adjust himself before he finally smothered the child. There was some crying before she stopped moving, the outlet reported.
Powe is accused of waking up shortly after this, searching for her daughter and then, without finding her, returning to her bedroom and then not reemerging. When Roldan Jr. awoke on the couch, he called 911 after he found the infant behind the cushion. She was not breathing.
NBC affiliate WOOD-TV reported that a local medical examiner said the infant died of asphyxiation.
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to Law&Crime for comment on Monday but last week, Kalamazoo County prosecutor Jeff Getting said he has watched the video of the events that took place in Powe and Roldan Jr.’s living room.
“I’ve seen it and it’s not something that anyone should have to watch,” he said. “It’s horrific.”
The parents face a sentence of 15 years maximum apiece.
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