![Janice Summerford]()
Janice Summerford
A 30-year-old Hiawatha woman has entered an Alford guilty plea for her role in the March 2013 death of 4-year-old Mekhi Boone.
Thirty-year-old Janice Summerford entered her plea in Brown County District Court on Friday, Aug. 29. With an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict the defendant of the crimes.
Following testimony from Brown County Chief Investigator Randy Linck, Hiawatha Police Chief John Defore and Hiawatha Police Investigator Michael Gruber, District Judge James A. Patton accepted the plea and found her guilty.
Sentencing is set for Sept. 22. Summerford could be sentenced from 109 to 493 months on the second degree murder conviction, 31 to 136 months on the felony child abuse conviction, and 5 to 17 months on the interference with law enforcement conviction.
Brown County Attorney Kevin Hill says the difference between first degree murder and second degree murder is not the severity of injuries that resulted in death, but rather the element of premeditation and intent. A conviction of first degree murder must prove that the defendant planned and intended to commit the murder. However, a conviction of second degree murder does not.
“Based on the forensic examination and investigation by law enforcement, it was determined that the tragic death of the 4-year-old child was not premeditated by the individuals involved but was the result of a beating that got way out of hand,” Hill said.
According to court documents, at the time of the murder Summerford and her three children resided with Boone and his father, Lee Davis IV, at 407 Utah in Hiawatha.
On March 3, 2013, Davis took a non-responsive Boone was taken to Hiawatha Community Hospital. Hospital staff discovered that Boone was covered with extensive bruises, and he was life-flighted to Children’s Mercy Hospital, where he died two days later from head trauma.
Davis was sentenced to 19-1/2 years in July 2013 on convictions of second degree murder and felony abuse of a child. Davis pled no contest to the charges.
“All involved — law enforcement, victim’s representative and attorney — are very pleased with the results based on the cards we were dealt,” Hill said.
Cards dealt, Hill said, involved all three non-law enforcement and non-medical witnesses of the events of March 3, 2013 — Lee Davis, Janice Summerford and Janelle Hall — lying about the facts of the case.
Initially, both Davis and Summerford told law enforcement that Davis was alone with Boone the afternoon of March 3 when the fatal injuries occurred. Summerford’s friend, Janelle Hall, also initially told law enforcement that Summerford was with Hall on the afternoon of March 3.
Following the preparation and execution of nearly a dozen search warrants by law enforcement and the Brown County Attorney’s Office, a number of incriminating texts from Summerford to Davis, all referring to Boone, including “I beat his ass,” “I’m about to fucking snap,” and “r u takin fuck face home.”
Additionally, analysis of the cell phone towers showed that Summerford was not where she said she was that afternoon.
Once confronted with this evidence, Hill said, Summerford acknowledged that she, not Davis, was “pissed at Boone” for taking a toy from Summerford’s child; that she was the first one to strike Boone that day; that she hit him hard enough to leave marks on his buttocks; that she spanked Boone at least every two to three days from November through March 3; that she pushed Boone’s head onto the carpeted floor when he failed to maintain a push-up position that she placed him in for discipline; that she “didn’t know” if she pushed his head into the floor hard enough to cause the fracture of his skull and ultimate death; that Davis wasn’t mad at Boone until after Summerford was beating Boone and Davis saw that Boone wasn’t listening to Summerford; that Summerford also “placed” not “pushed” Boone’s nose against the wall for not listening; and that Summerford didn’t try to physically restrain Davis when Davis starting kicking Boone and “rammed his head against the wall.”
Davis testified at Summerford’s preliminary hearing that, while he spanked Boone on March 3, the act of ramming Boone’s head against the wall was Summerford’s, and that he lied about Summerford not being in the room when the injuries were inflicted to protect her and to avoid her being questioned about his actions.
Hall later acknowledged that she was not with Summerford the afternoon of March 3 and that Summerford and Davis informed her that Summerford was present with Davis when the injuries to Boone occurred. Hall testified at the preliminary hearing that she saw Summerford slam Boone’s head down against a table a few days prior to Boone’s death.
“Without the many long hours of investigation put in by the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Hiawatha Police Department and Kansas Bureau of Investigation, including the detailed and time consuming task of forensic examination of the cell phone data, the full picture of what occurred may never have been known,” Hill said.
Amber Deters | Herald
