A Maine woman charged with killing her seven-week-old baby told the jury she was ‘blacked out on booze and marjiuana’ and thinks one of her autistic children may have committed the crime.
Miranda Hopkins, 32, took the stand Monday in her own defense at court in Belfast.
Hopkins told the jury that she still doesn’t know how baby Jaxson died in January because she had had multiple shots of liquor and smoked marijuana the night of her son’s death.
Jaxson suffered extensive injuries, including skull fractures, 15 broken ribs, a broken right arm, and cuts and bruises from head to toe.
Miranda Hopkins (pictured), 32, who was charged with killing her seven-week-old son, Jaxson, told the jury that she was ‘blacked out on booze’ and thinks one of her autistic sons may have committed the crime
Hopkins told the jury that she still doesn’t know how baby Jaxson died in January because she had had multiple shots of liquor and smoked marijuana the night of her son’s death. Hopkins is seen crying in court last week
Jaxson suffered extensive injuries, including skull fractures, 15 broken ribs, a broken right arm, and cuts and bruises from head to toe. Police said Hopkins had been drinking whisky and told investigators that she must have ‘blacked out’. She’s pictured in court last week
Police said Hopkins had been drinking whisky and told investigators that she must have ‘blacked out’.
But she previously told police that one of her two autistic sons, aged six and eight, may have been responsible.
In multiple interviews, Hopkins reportedly told police that she was co-sleeping with Jaxson when she woke up with gall bladder pain in the middle of the night, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Hopkins told police that she had checked on her other two sons, who share a bedroom in the home, before checking on Jaxson.
But a few hours later, she said she woke up to find her baby cold and ‘beat to hell’. The baby’s cause of death was listed as blunt force head injuries.
At the time, Hopkins claimed that one of her sons, likely the eight-year-old, must have climbed onto the bed, and either crushed or beat Jaxson without her hearing or feeling anything.
But much of this initial story was a lie, she told jurors on Monday.
‘I’d been drinking, I’d passed out, and my baby was killed,’ she told jurors. ‘I was scared of what might happen.’
Hopkins (pictured) claimed that one of her sons, likely the eight-year-old, must have climbed onto the bed, and either crushed or beat Jaxson without her hearing or feeling anything
Hopkins said in court on Monday that she initially lied to police because she feared her sons would be taken away from her. Her older sons have since moved in with a relative.
The defense has also argued that the boys would have been capable of seriously harming their sibling.
According to the defense, the six-year-old has shown aggressive tendencies against other children in the past.
Despite her son’s horrific injuries, Hopkins said she never heard cries, a scuffle, or the loud vocalizations that her autistic sons make when they’re agitated or excited.
Prosecutors said Hopkins’ stories don’t line up, and have questioned how she didn’t hear anything that night.
They also point to findings that some of Jaxson’s injuries could have been caused by shaking.