Jackson Police have determined that a baby’s death is now a homicide after the mother was questioned by detectives.

 JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Jackson Police have determined that a baby’s death is now a homicide after the mother was questioned by detectives.

Around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jackson Police responded to a call in reference to a deceased infant on Forest Avenue.

The mother, Lagayla Haynes, 28, said that she took her daughter to the University of Mississippi Medical Center because she was unresponsive. The child was later pronounced dead.

After interviewing Haynes Wednesday evening, Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said that the baby was “brutally beaten” and it was determined that it was a homicide.

This child had been victimized,” he said. “This child has been brutally beaten and abused. The child had trauma around her neck. What was so startling and horrendous about this was that this child had possibly been deceased for 10 hours.”

Both Haynes and the child’s aunt, Samara Smith, 23, have been charged with felony child neglect.