Mother Of Dead Infant Pleads Guilty To Child Neglect

Norfolk’s Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi promised to talk to us about what appeared to be a lenient plea agreement in the case of a dead infant after the mother who’d been charged with murdering her 9-day-old daughter had her day in court.

He kept his word.

And Fatehi’s explanation for comparatively mild sentences for both parents of the battered baby makes sense.

Still, it doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t seem that justice was served. Neither parent confessed to killing the baby, neither pointed the finger at each other.

They’re both culpable.

And if jurors have been given a glimpse of that tiny child’s broken body, if they’d seen what must be a harrowing autopsy report, they may very well have sent both of these monsters to prison for life.

As it is, the father, Hilary Darnell Johnson II, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and according to a plea agreement accepted by the judge, will be sentenced in October to no more than 19 years in prison. (The maximum sentence is 40 years.)

On Tuesday, the mother of Iijayah Johnson, Z’Ibreyea Parker, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and could face up to 10 years behind bars.

Here’s an explanation from the prosecutor:

“The guilty pleas of Mr. Johnson and Ms. Parker are an important milestone in holding these two people responsible for the sufferZ’Ibreng of Baby I.J.  There is no question that baby I.J. suffered and died at the hands of one or both of her parents, but the evidence could not prove for sure whether one parent or both inflicted these injuries or who inflicted them.  All we have are explanations that are clearly untrue.  It is also beyond question that Baby I.J. suffered terribly during her short and tragic life, and we will argue for prisons sentences for both parents when the time comes.”

To answer your questions, the police charged the mother with second-degree murder under the theory that one or both parents inflicted the injuries on baby.  Neither parent admitted to inflicting the injuries, and only the two parents know for sure who inflicted which injuries and whether it was one or both of them.  We nol prossed the murder against the mother because we could not prove that she had inflicted any injuries.  We could prove, however, that she failed in her duty as a mother to seek medical care for the baby’s injuries, whether they were “accidental” or intentional, hence the felony child neglect.  There is no agreement on her sentence.  She faces up to the statutory maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

For the father, we had a similar and arguably more serious problem:  His statement about a stroller fall was obviously not credible, but at trial we would have had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he (and not the mother) inflicted the injuries.  It was not legally feasible to try the parents jointly, because then the parents’ statements would not have been admissible.  We were set for separate trials and faced the prospect that each parent could have taken the stand and blamed the other for the injuries, leaving the jury with reasonable doubt on the murder and no accountability for the homicide. 

Our theory is that the father intentionally inflicted the injuries against the baby (not in a home, since they were living in a tent at the time) and that the mother failed to take the baby for treatment, but we faced the prospect that, if we went to trial, neither parent would be convicted of murder.  That is the reason for the plea offer for the father.  What he did was terrible, but for Baby I.J.’s sake we were willing to willing to put an upper limit on the sentence to guarantee a murder conviction by plea.

Wait a minute. These parents were living in a tent? They were homeless?

Assuming the baby was born in a Norfolk hospital how did their living arrangement not alarm the medical team that delivered the child? Last time I checked most new parents leave the hospital escorted by at least a nurse who ensures that the infant is correctly situated in a baby seat. Did these two leave the hospital in a car? On foot?

Did no one think it might be worth a call to Child Protective Services to see that the parents were equipped to care for a little one?

In a Facebook post from 2024, the baby’s paternal grandfather claims he alerted hospital staff that the parents were not equipped to take care of the child.

Apparently nothing was done to ensure the safety of the newborn.

In reality, there is no punishment cruel enough for adults who would torture their own offspring to death.

Baby Iijayah should be 16 months old, toddling, smiling and being tenderly cared for by people who love her. Instead, she’s gone. And the news outlets who reported on her no-good parents didn’t even mention her name.

Precious Iijayah never had a chance.

Iijayah Johnson. Photo from the GoFundMe page for her funeral expenses.