LOS ANGELES—A 22-year-old woman was behind bars July 12 in connection with the apparent overdose death of her 3-year-old son at a home in the Winnetka neighborhood.
Police and paramedics responded at about 11:20 a.m. July 12 to a home in the 20000 block of Sherman Way, where Jestice James found her 3-year-old twin boys “unresponsive,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
The boys were both taken to a hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead and the other was listed in critical condition, police said. The child who died was identified by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner as Josiah James, who died at 12:24 p.m. July 12. The child’s cause of death was pending an autopsy, but an “exam has not yet been scheduled,” according to the Medical Examiner.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that the children had ingested, or been exposed to, an unknown substance,” according to an LAPD statement. “The mother and other residents of the home were transported to the LAPD Topanga Community Police Station for questioning.”
Jestice James was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held in lieu of $2 million bail.
A witness told KTLA5 that the boys’s parents were hysterical as a neighbor attempted to perform CPR on the children before paramedics arrived.
“I came in, there’s a kid sitting on the table and I started giving him CPR, and my friend says, ‘Oh my God, there’s another one,”’ neighbor Chris Burko told the station.
