A woman from Humble, Texas, was arrested after allegedly sending pictures and videos of herself abusing her infant son. Janelle Peterkin then began sending the pictures to people.
The son’s aunt, Ra’Neicha Broadnax, said Peterkin sent her the videos and pictures, showing the child being slapped, having a lighter held to his fingers, and a plastic bag put over his head. Broadnax contends that Peterkin did it because the child’s father had a new girlfriend, and that she threatened to harm the child if they didn’t respond.
One of Peterkin’s text messages reportedly said: “Sad that he that pressed to cheat after he just begged me to be his girlfriend. That’s okay. We can keep playing. Let’s see how bad y’all wanna be together.” It was accompanied by a photo of her 1-year-old with a plastic bad tied around his head.
Broadnax explained how the disturbing messages and pictures came into her possession, reports KIAH:
“My brother is incarcerated. His girlfriend was snooping through his phone and she saw he had [Peterkin] on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ features, so she took it off and the phone vibrated for an hour straight. … Her craziness is what got her on the blocked list,” she said. “When she looked, there were over 300 messages from Peterkin and 64 videos. … After I put the post up, someone from New York Police Department called me and from all different states, police were calling. Then a detective called me from the Humble Police Department asking where Janelle was.”
The Daily Mail reports that after Broadnax alerted the authorities, Peterkin was arrested and charged with endangering a child.
“There were some pictures taken approximately a month ago. Officers arrived at a day care and they observed some disturbing photos,” explained a prosecutor in the case, as cited by KPRC. “They also saw video of the complainant in a car seat and an adult hand was seen stuffing a plastic bag into the mouth of the complainant, who appeared to have difficulty breathing. Officers also saw another still picture of the complainant in a child car sear with a plastic bag over his head, covering the face and tying it in a knot.”
The presiding judge told Peterkin:
“You’ll have to find someone else [to pick you up], because if you get within 200 feet of the child while this order is pending, she’s going to have to bring that child to 701 San Jacinto to visit you because you’re going to be in jail.”
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