Murder charge dropped against Las Vegas woman arrested in baby’s death

Prosecutors on Wednesday dismissed a murder charge against a Las Vegas woman arrested in 2019 in connection with her baby’s death.

Kristina Kerlus initially faced felony charges of murder and child abuse, neglect or endangerment resulting in substantial bodily harm in connection with the death of her son, 2-month-old Jocai Davis.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Jobe announced during a court hearing Wednesday that the state was voluntarily dismissing both counts after an investigation showed that prosecutors could not prove the charges.

The case was scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 3, court records show.

Jobe asked the charges to be dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could charge Kerlus again in the future. Kerlus’ defense attorney, Ryan Helmick, told District Judge Carli Kierny that he may file a motion in the coming month for the case to be dismissed with prejudice, so that Kerlus could not be charged again.

“The medical science here is absolute in regard to the cause of this baby’s death,” Helmick said.

In a statement sent to the Review-Journal, Helmick said Kerlus had been wrongfully accused with the theory that Jocai had died because of “shaken baby syndrome.”

Kerlus declined to speak with the Review-Journal after the hearing but later sent a statement through her attorney. Kerlus wrote in the statement that “shaken baby syndrome” often leads to “flawed convictions.”

“After four years of fighting for my truth, fighting for my kids, my case is dismissed and now I can work on healing from this trauma,” she said in the statement.

Jobe declined to comment on the case, and directed questions to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who did not reply to a request for comment.

In July 2019, the Clark County coroner’s office ruled Jocai’s death a homicide caused by blunt force head and neck trauma. The coroner’s office confirmed Wednesday that the boy’s cause and manner of death have not changed.

The coroner’s office determined Jocai had hemorrhaging in his brain, eye area and spinal cord, swelling in his brain and healing nerve fractures, according to Kerlus’ arrest report.

But Helmick said during the hearing that the defense spoke with multiple medical experts who believed Jocai died of natural causes as a complication of sickle cell anemia, a disease that causes abnormally shaped red blood cells.

Helmick said Jocai’s heart was enlarged, and he suffered a ruptured artery in his brain, which then caused a lack of blood flow and cardiac arrest.

The arrest report indicates that Jocai was born premature and underweight. He was a carrier for sickle cell anemia and was scheduled to see a specialist for the blood disease shortly before his death, the report said.

Jocai died at University Medical Center on Oct. 7, 2018, two days after the baby was rushed to Summerlin Hospital Medical Center in cardiac arrest and was diagnosed with a brain bleed, according to a police report.

The boy’s father had woken up that morning to the baby lying on his stomach and noticed Jocai was “crying and seemed irritated,” the report said. When Jocai stopped responding, he splashed water on the baby’s face and called Kerlus, who told him to call 911.

Kerlus was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center after the coroner’s office ruled Jocai’s death a homicide. The officer who wrote the arrest report did not indicate what, if anything, police believe Kerlus did to cause Jocai’s injuries.

After Kerlus’ arrest, her sister told the Review-Journal that Kerlus was innocent and that the baby was injured two weeks before his death at a day care provider.

On Oct. 4, the day before Jocai was rushed to the hospital, Kerlus told police that the baby spent the night next to her on a mattress on the carpeted floor of the home they had just moved into. At one point, she woke up to find Jocai on the ground “like he rolled off,” but he acted “completely fine,” according to the arrest report.

Jocai’s father told police that Kerlus had sent him a video of Jocai that evening and then sent a picture in which it appeared that the baby was sleeping, the report said.

The officer who authored the report and viewed the photo noted that in the picture Jocai “was slumped forward and his color looked off,” the report said.

Kerlus was released from custody after posting a $100,000 bail shortly after her arrest, court records show.

She was seen crying after Wednesday’s court hearing, upset over the possibility that prosecutors could charge her in the future. Helmick said during the hearing that the case has no statute of limitations.

“She has this gray cloud that’s still going to hang over her head for the rest of her life,” he told the judge.

The judge said she did not believe she has the authority to order prosecutors to change how the case was dismissed.

“You’ve obtained a pretty miraculous result already with them agreeing to dismiss it voluntarily,” Kierny said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.