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4YO Jo’nyri Hawkins Killed By Mom's Boyfriend In New Orleans Hotel

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Sugar Cookie

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New Orleans police have obtained a warrant to arrest a man accused of killing his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter in a Central Business District hotel room earlier this month.

Anfernee Devante Steele, 21, faces one count of second-degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile in the slaying of Jo’nyri Hawkins, police announced Thursday.

A law enforcement source said Hawkins' mother had left the girl in Steele's care at a hotel for a few hours and returned to find the child unresponsive and limp early Oct. 3. The mother called 911, and first responders pronounced her dead.

The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office later ruled that Hawkins had died from blunt force injuries, and the agency classified her case as a homicide, the source said.

Steele at one point allegedly claimed that Hawkins had a bad fall, according to the source. But the source said authorities concluded that the girl's "severe bodily injuries" were not consistent with a fall and had resulted from physical abuse.

Police obtained a warrant to arrest Steele on Tuesday. He was at large as of Thursday afternoon.
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www.nola.com

Suspect named in killing of 4-year-old girl in New Orleans Central Business District hotel

New Orleans police have obtained a warrant to arrest a man accused of killing his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter in a Central Business District hotel room earlier this month.
www.nola.com www.nola.com
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What a beautiful child! All the promise, wonder and hope for the future taken, stolen away by someone too impatient to even know what his vile actions have caused! He is a monster disguised as a human, not suitable to live in free society, he should never again breathe free air! I hope he is surrounded by people who equal his hateful and evil ways and he lives in fear for himself!
 
Anfernee Steele’s story just did not add up.

The Houma man, now the target of a manhunt in the death of 4-year-old Jo'nyri Hawkins, told investigators that his girlfriend's daughter soiled her underwear while he was watching her in a New Orleans hotel room on Oct. 3, according to court records obtained by The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.

So he gave the toddler a bath while the other children in his care slept.

When the effects of marijuana he smoked earlier in day made him tired, Steele, 21, decided to take a nap and leave the toddler alone in the tub, he told police.

Later, he heard a thump and some splashing, so he ran into the bathroom and pulled Jo’nyri out of the tub. He was worried she had swallowed water, so he pressed on her stomach with his hands. After determining the child was breathing normally, he told police he dressed her and put her to bed.

Most curiously, Steele said he didn't think anything was wrong with Jo’nyri until her mother came back and noticed she was limp, court records show.

Then, the autopsy results came in.

A forensic pathologist determined that Jo’nyri died from blunt trauma to her abdomen, which caused her “massive internal bleeding,” the court records said. The pathologist said the fatal injury most likely came from a punch or kick so hard that it ruptured Jo’nryi’s liver and spleen.

The girl’s body also showed signs of prior abuse — bruising, scars and human bite marks. She had a rib fracture that had healed, and “vaginal trauma consistent with having an object being inserted … similar to a finger” was evident, police said in the court documents.

A search of Steele's room at the Sheraton Hotel also failed to support his story. For example, police said, all of the towels in the bathroom were dry, and a pair of Jo’nyri’s underwear left there was clean, contradicting Steele’s claim that he had bathed the girl after she soiled herself.

Everything suggested that Steele abused, then killed the toddler, police said. So they obtained a warrant to arrest him for murder, setting off a search.

Citing interviews with people who had been around him, police said Steele began acting suspiciously almost immediately. He allegedly begged Jo’nyri’s mother to not call 911 and tried to stop her from leaving the room to meet paramedics, saying child protective services might take the kids away "again."

The mother ultimately pushed Steele and met the paramedics in the hotel lobby. The girl was taken to University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Steele acted even more strangely outside of the hospital, according to what those around him told police.

Steele remained in his car and reclined his seat as if trying to hide from the rest of the girl’s mother’s family, who had shown up to the hospital in solidarity, police said.

He allegedly told the teen relative who had been with him and Jo’nyri, “Remember what I told you,” as the teenager walked into the hospital. Police didn’t elaborate on what that remark may have meant, but the family regarded it — along with the rest of his behavior — as “unusual,” investigators wrote in the court documents.

Police tried to re-interview Steele after the autopsy, but they couldn’t find him, and his mother and Jo’nyri’s mother said they didn't know where he was. Attempts to contact Jo'nyri's mother have been unsuccessful.

Investigators on Tuesday obtained a warrant to arrest Steele on counts of second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles. Police released his name to the public on Thursday and asked for help in finding him.
www.nola.com

Slain 4-year-old girl's body covered in bruises, bite marks, other signs of abuse

Anfernee Steele’s story just did not add up.
www.nola.com www.nola.com
 
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