Infant fatality case destined for Grand Jury

Published 11:15 pm Thursday, August 23, 2012

The case involving Mesha Wilson, the 22-year-old mother charged with capital murder in the death of her 6-month-old daughter in May, has now been sent to the next Dallas County Grand Jury, scheduled for September.

District Attorney Michael Jackson’s office confirmed the case will be held over to the grand jury Wednesday.

Wilson was arrested just days after her daughter, Janiyah, was pronounced dead at Vaughan Regional Medical Center.

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The sad case began when Wilson phoned 911 while driving; telling operators her daughter was having trouble breathing.

Operators told Wilson to pull off the road and await medical help. That help arrived moments later when Selma Police Officer Kenneth Keith arrived at the Shell Station on Broad Street and found Janiyah unresponsive and not breathing.

According to police reports, Keith administered CPR until paramedics arrived and rushed the child to Vaughan Regional Medical Center, where the infant was later pronounced dead.

Following her arrest, Jackson said Wilson was charged with capital murder because of the age of the child at the time of her death.

“These are difficult, especially when you have a 6-month-old child, it is difficult. Because you look at the child and she is basically defenseless,” Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley told the Times-Journal in May. “At that age, as a homicide victim, it is left up to law enforcement to speak for the child. And, especially, as a parent being a possible suspect, we have to speak for the child, speak for the victim.”

Wilson will remains in the Dallas County Jail.