Man charged with murder of 2-year-old boy in Gary
GARY, Ind. (WISH) — A 32-year-old Illinois man has been charged with the murder of a 2-year-old boy, Gary police said Thursday.
The child was identified as Je’Loni Smith.
Ricky D. Larkin was charged Wednesday in Lake Superior Court, Criminal Division 3. He remained in jail Thursday night without bond. No court hearing has been set, online court records show. Matson was listed as being from Matteson, Illinois, a village southwest of Chicago.
Larkin had told authorities that he was the boy’s father, but the boy’s mother said Larkin is not the boy’s father but her occasional boyfriend, according to prosecutors.
Gary Fire Department asked police for assistance about an infant not breathing about 5:30 p.m. Monday in the 300 block of Arthur Street. That’s in a residential area south of the Grant Street interchange from the Indiana Toll Road.
Larkin said he’d discovered Je’Loni not breathing while in a bathtub and unsuccessfully attempted to perform CPR.
Firefighters and police officers found swelling on the lifeless 2-year-old and called in the Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force and the county coroner.
Authorities took the child to Methodist Northlake Hospital.
Je’Loni’s death was ruled a homicide on Tuesday.
Prosecutors told Chicago media that the child appeared to have been hit in the face and head. Je’Loni had a cut in his liver, bleeding under his scalp, cuts to his back and buttocks, and scrapes on his neck and chest. No signs of drowning were found.
News 8 has reached out to the Lake County coroner for Je’Loni’s cause of death.