Left: Z'ibreyea S. Parker. Right: Hilary Johnson II (Norfolk Police Department). Inset: I'ijayah Johnson (GoFundMe).
A Virginia couple will be spending significant time behind bars for the death of their 9-day-old baby daughter, authorities announced.
In early August, Hilary Darnell Johnson II, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the second degree. In late August, Z'ibreyea Shantel Parker, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse.
The pair were subsequently sentenced in successive hearings.
By the end of this, they both learned their fates.
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In October, 4th Judicial District Judge Jamilah D. LeCruise sentenced Johnson to 19 years in prison. On Friday, 4th Judicial District Judge Jennifer L. Fuschetti sentenced Parker to 10 years in prison.
The crimes for which the couple were punished took the life of little I'ijayah, who was described as "cold to the touch" when the pair arrived at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters on the afternoon of May 4, 2024, according to a press release issued by the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the parents said their girl had fallen from her stroller and hit her head two days before while Johnson was out jogging.
"The parents, who were living in a tent at the time, said that they had not sought medical treatment for Iijayah sooner because they had tried to treat her on their own with witch hazel, peroxide and gauze and that they only got on the Light Rail to bring her to the hospital when they noticed that after appetite had decreased and that she appeared to no longer be breathing," the press release reads.
While at the hospital, the parents "struggled" to give hospital staff a "precise birthdate" for their child, authorities say.
At the hospital, Parker claimed the injuries "were not all that serious," as Law&Crime previously reported.
Soon, the story about the fall became suspect.
"Hospital staff observed signs of abuse on I'ijayah's body — including burns on the bottoms of her feet, two cuts to the top of her head and face, and bruises on her back," the press release goes on.
Then, police were called.
In time, an autopsy would show even more signs of abuse. The medical examiner determined the days-old little girl died from "blunt trauma to her head and torso." That determination also found that "deep partial-thickness burns," such as the kind of burns caused by hot liquid, to be a "contributing factor" in her too-young death.
"None of her injuries could be explained by a fall from a stroller," the press release goes on. "I'ijayah had also suffered several broken ribs and multiple other internal and external injuries."
Prosecutors say they were unable to conclusively establish which parent inflicted the fatal injuries but "the evidence pointed more strongly" to Johnson. For their parts, both denied hurting the child.
As part of their plea deals, each parent had one of the original charges against them dropped – Johnson no longer faced the child abuse charge; Parker no longer faced the murder charge.
"There is no victim more vulnerable than a newborn baby," Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi said in a statement. "I'ijayah came into the world in need of love and protection from her mother and father. What she got instead was suffering and death. This was a difficult case on the facts, and there were real risks in going to trial, since, while there was no doubt about the nature of I'ijayah's injuries, each parent could have blamed the other for inflicting them. In both cases, we secured a conviction and left the sentencing to the wisdom of the judge. We will continue to work the difficult cases and to honor the memory of innocent victims like I'ijayah who cannot speak for themselves."