Boy, 4, found dead in Atlanta suffered injuries, past abuse,
Two women face murder charges in the boy’s death. Warrants for one suspect state the child had been abused ‘for a long period of time’ before he was found dead under a pile of clothes.Jasmaine Smoak, who court records said was caring for multiple children, is one of two women facing charges of murder, according to authorities. Smoak, 32, is not related to the boy but is a friend of his mother.
A second suspect, Jasmine Jenkins, was “a party to the crime,” officials said, and was arrested Thursday, three days after officials discovered the boy during a wellness check. In warrants, officials identified Jenkins as Smoak’s friend and stated the two women left several children at a southwest Atlanta residence “to go out” Sunday evening.
The following night, in response to a 911 call from one of Smoak’s relatives, police forced entry into the home and discovered the deceased child, identified as Cobee Cooks, according to warrants and the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office. Authorities said his body was found under clothes inside a closet in the primary bedroom of the Cardinal Drive home.
The boy had various injuries, including a laceration to the top of his head, a deformity to his arm, a lacerated spleen and liver, and contusions to his diaphragm and kidney, according to Smoak’s arrest warrants obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Police wrote Cobee also had “numerous healed injuries located during autopsy.”
Jenkins is accused of “knowing, participating in, and/or observing” the beating that led to Cobee’s death, according to her warrants.
“Detectives have received text message screenshots showing that the abuse was ongoing for a long period of time.” Authorities have not said who they believe was responsible for the past abuse or how long it had gone on.
The child’s body temperature was also consistent with him having been dead for 12 to 24 hours by the time medical examiners met with detectives at the Atlanta home, Smoak’s warrants said. Before officers even arrived at the scene, authorities said Smoak fled with other children, ranging in age from 10 to 3.
During her Tuesday arrest in Wilkes County, Atlanta police said those children were recovered and at least one of them “sustained visible injuries.”That child, a 5-year-old boy, was taken to a hospital, and had bruising to his face, a laceration above his eye and was malnourished, Smoak’s warrants said. Doctors determined his injuries were from abuse, the documents stated.
The warrants do not explain why Smoak was caring for Cobee or for how long, but neighbors told police she was the only adult caring for the children during the two months she lived at the Atlanta home.
Both Jenkins and Smoak were located and arrested at the same address in Wilkes County, about 110 miles east of Atlanta and roughly 50 miles northwest of Augusta, according to Wilkes Sheriff Darrell Powers. Atlanta police said the home belonged to a relative of Jenkins.
Smoak was arrested the day after Cobee’s body was found. She was initially charged with concealing the death of another and second-degree cruelty to children, and Atlanta police later said she faced additional charges of murder, aggravated assault and first-degree cruelty to children.
Jenkins is facing charges of murder and first-degree cruelty to children, according to Atlanta police.
Smoak and Jenkins were both booked into the Fulton jail Thursday.
An attorney could not be located for either woman.
A spokesperson with the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services declined to answer questions about if the agency has conducted any previous investigations connected to the child. The medical examiner’s office initially provided an incorrect spelling of Cobee Cooks’ name.
Two women are charged with murder after a 4-year-old boy’s body was found under a pile of clothes at an Atlanta home, arrest warrants say.
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