CALCASIEU PARISH, La. (TCN) — A 28-year-old woman has been sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles in connection with the death of her 4-year-old son and abandonment of her 1-year-old son in 2024.
Law & Crime reports Aaliyah Jack was upset about a child custody agreement when she put her sons, 4-year-old Legend Jack and a 1-year-old whose name has not been released, in a car and drove away in early July 2024, when the area was under threat Hurricane Beryl.
According to the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office, Jack abandoned her elder son at a welcome center on July 7 and her younger son in a ditch on the side of Interstate 10. Legend Jack was found dead in a body of water and the 1-year-old was found alive by a truck driver.
Calcasieu Sheriff Stitch Guillory said, “We look at this 1-year-old as our miracle baby because he was still alive,” Law & Crime reports.
Jack was sentenced to life in prison for the second-degree murder charge and 15 years in prison for the cruelty to juveniles charge on Nov. 5, according to the DA.
The Advocate reports Dion Polk, the boys’ grandmother, said of the verdict, “To see my grandson — to see him laying on that pallet, swollen … I’m thinking to myself, ‘He was yelling for you to help. You just left him. He was screaming for help.’ I know he was because he was terrified of water. … You went a mile, you didn’t turn around. … You went 6 miles, you didn’t turn around. You went 20 miles, you didn’t turn around. You made a choice.”
District Attorney Stephen Dwight said, “This sentence ensures that Aaliyah Jack will spend the rest of her life behind bars, held accountable for the horrific actions that took the life of an innocent child and caused unimaginable suffering to another.”
He continued, “While no sentence can undo what happened or restore the life that was lost, we hope this outcome brings some measure of justice and closure. Our office remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable among us and pursuing accountability when innocent children are victimized.”
Legend Jack’s obituary remembers him as a boy who “never stood still for a moment, he was always moving around. He loved being outdoors playing football and baseball with his cousins. He liked watching cartoons, especially Ninja Turtle and Sonic the Hedgehog and playing the video game PJ Masks.”
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