“I didn’t take my anger out on him;” 24-year-old woman who slammed the 1-year-old boy she was watching while his mother was at work against a wall, killing him, was convicted
Michigan – In a deeply disturbing case in Michigan, a jury has found a 24-year-old woman, identified as K. Hodges, guilty of murdering a toddler she had been entrusted to care for. The conviction stems from the violent death of the 1-year-old boy, a child Hodges had babysat on and off for months while his mother worked. Prosecutors charged her with murder following the discovery that she had thrown the boy against a wall, causing fatal head injuries.
Initially, Hodges faced a first-degree child abuse charge after the boy was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. That charge was elevated to murder when the child died the next day from his injuries. The jury delivered its verdict earlier this month, marking the conclusion of a trial that exposed a disturbing account of betrayal and violence.
The events unfolded in June 2022, inside Hodges’ home. She was watching the 1-year-old boy as she had done on previous occasions, being a neighbor the mother trusted. That trust shattered when Hodges contacted the boy’s mother, saying something was wrong with him. The mother arrived to find her son lying on the floor, enduring seizure after seizure. She would later recall how relentless the convulsions were, each moment confirming that something far more sinister than an “allergic reaction” — Hodges’ initial explanation—had occurred. Hodges claimed the toddler had an allergic reaction to something he ingested, but that story collapsed when doctors revealed the severity of his injuries.
Hospital staff found blunt force trauma to the head, bleeding from the ears, and injuries severe enough to require emergency brain surgery. According to court documents, the boy had arrived at the hospital around 2 a.m. on June 14, 2022. Medical experts later testified that the force used was consistent with being slammed against a wall, followed by further violent handling. Hodges was arrested within hours—around 7:50 a.m.—after detectives concluded that her account did not match the child’s condition. Investigators say she eventually admitted to striking and harming the toddler while she was “watching” him for his mother.
During her police interview, Hodges told detectives that the situation had not been intended to happen and insisted they only wanted her to admit she had taken her anger out on the child. She denied that claim, saying, “Maybe I hit him too hard, but I didn’t take my anger out on him.” This statement, coupled with her earlier shifting explanations, became a central point of the prosecution’s argument — that Hodges was attempting to minimize her actions despite admitting to physically assaulting the boy.
The boy’s condition did not improve. On June 15, 2022, he was pronounced dead, his injuries too severe for medical intervention to save him. With that, prosecutors upgraded the case from child abuse to murder, preparing for trial on charges that carried the possibility of life in prison. The boy’s mother, devastated by the loss and betrayal, wrote that she had once trusted Hodges and would have done anything for her — a trust that was “completely shattered” by the truth of what happened.
With the jury’s verdict, Hodges now awaits sentencing, scheduled for October 2. She faces a potential life sentence for the murder conviction. The prosecutor’s office has not yet confirmed whether they will seek the maximum penalty, but the ruling ensures that Hodges will spend decades, if not the rest of her life, in prison. For the victim’s family, the conviction closes the legal battle but cannot erase the memory of that June morning when a trusted caretaker’s actions turned fatal — leaving a mother without her child and a community grieving a life ended before it began.
