Inset: Jimmie Jane Grantham (Virginia Beach County Jail). Background: The daycare center where Grantham allegedly abused an infant in Virginia Beach, Va. (Google Maps).
A Virginia woman appeared in court this week over allegations that she abused an infant out of frustration and broke his shin.
Jimmie Jane Grantham, 63, stands accused of felony child abuse or neglect over the spring incident involving a then-10-month-old boy.
The underlying incident occurred in early March at the Just for Kids Preschool and Childcare Center on Lynnhaven Road in Virginia Beach, according to law enforcement in the Old Dominion.
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The boy’s mother said that when she dropped him off that morning, he was a “happy and healthy infant,” according to an earlier report by Portsmouth NBC affiliate WAVY.
The boy’s mother received a phone call from someone at the daycare center who was worried the child had somehow injured his foot, according to the family’s legal team. So, the little boy was taken to Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in nearby Norfolk. There, doctors determined the infant’s shin, or tibia, had been fractured.
After that diagnosis, the boy’s mother said she received several different explanations about the source of his injury. Police were then called and, after an investigation, Grantham was arrested in May.
Details of the alleged abuse were revealed by prosecutors in court documents and during a preliminary hearing this week, Hampton ABC affiliate WVEC and WAVY reported.
“Cameras in the room captured Grantham taking care of four infants, one being [the victim],” a criminal complaint reads. “He was seen on the cameras in the morning crawling and constantly pulling himself up into a standing position using shelves and bouncers. He was not crying or fussy during this time.”
Later that afternoon, the defendant put the infant in a highchair and was attempting to feed him from a bottle, police said.
“She appeared to be frustrated that he wasn’t drinking from the bottle and that he was kicking the high chair,” the complaint continues. “At one point, she hit him in the face with the bottle. A little later, she stated that she saw his shoe was falling off his left foot, so she went over and twisted and pushed the shoe back on.”
The charging document says the child emitted a “sharp scream” in response and that he “didn’t touch his bottle after.”
After that, Grantham picked the baby up and sat down with him in her arms for a while, the charging document says.
“She attempted to put his shoe back on his left foot and he was heard crying the whole time,” the complaint goes on. “After this, for the rest of the day, [the victim] was seen only sitting and slowly crawling. The few times he tried to stand, he would fall back down and would start to cry.”
The doctor at the hospital would later tell law enforcement “that it was plausible for Grantham’s actions to be the cause of” the child’s injury, according to the charging document.
“No parent dropping their child off at daycare in the morning should have to deal with getting a call that they’ve been hurt and find out that they’ve had a bone broken at the hands of a staff member,” Bailey Gifford, an attorney for the child’s family, told WAVY. “The factual allegations that the Commonwealth’s Attorney listed in their criminal complaint are incredibly disturbing.”
The defendant will next appear in court in February 2027.
The post Daycare worker frustrated with infant hit highchair-bound little boy in the face with a bottle and then broke his shin, police say first appeared on Law & Crime.
