Inset: Lyrica Maisha Noble (Craighead County Sheriff's Office). Background: The suburban area where Noble allegedly falsely claimed her infant son had been left outside for nearly half an hour in Jonesboro, Ark. (Google Maps).
Shocking new details call into question child endangerment charges filed against an Arkansas man earlier this month, authorities say.
Now, it turns out, the child in question may never have been in danger at all.
Lyrica Maisha Noble, 27, stands accused of one count of filing a false report with a law enforcement agency, according to the Jonesboro Police Department. The charge is a low-tier felony in the Natural State.
Originally, charges in the case were filed against the father of Noble's child, Larry Donell Lee, 27, over what may now appear to be false claims.
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The underlying incident occurred on Nov. 6, outside a residence on Churchill Drive in Jonesboro — a medium-sized college town located roughly 70 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. On the day in question, Lee was watching the baby so the mother could run some errands, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Eventually, the parents began to argue and Lee told Noble "he was returning the child to her residence." Noble, however, insisted she was not home but Lee "said he did not believe her."
The child was left on the front porch in his car seat.
Initially, Noble told law enforcement the infant "had been left outside alone for approximately 30 minutes." But the mother recently admitted she actually was home when the baby boy was dropped off, officials say.
But the child may have hardly been alone at all, but rather instantly retrieved from just outside the residence by his mother after his father dropped him off — vindicating Lee's version of events.
The drastic narrative shift occurred two days after the original report.
The woman's first story emerged on Nov. 19.
"Noble reported that she was not at her residence when Lee dropped off their infant child," according to an affidavit obtained by NEA Report, an online news website covering Northeastern Arkansas. "Noble further claimed that when she arrived, she found the child in a car seat with vomit on them."
On Nov. 21, the story changed significantly.
"Noble admitted that she had been at the residence the entire time Lee was attempting to contact her," the affidavit goes on. "She acknowledged that when Lee informed her the baby had been left outside, she was already home and retrieved the child immediately. Noble's admission confirmed that she had provided false information regarding the alleged endangerment of the minor, which had led to a felony warrant being issued for Lee and his subsequent arrest for child endangerment."
After her apparent admission, Noble was arrested and booked in the Craighead County Detention Center. She does not appear on the jail's roster as of this writing. The defendant is slated to appear in court on Jan. 23, court records show.
Law&Crime reached out to the Jonesboro Police Department for additional details on this story — particularly the status of Lee's case — but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
