An Alabama woman, one of two charged in the blunt-force-injury death of her son, pleaded not guilty on April 4, according to court records.
Emery Michael-Knox Wilson was 15 months old when authorities were called to the intersection of Highway 24 and County Road 214 where someone was performing CPR on the toddler on April 11, 2021.
He was rushed to Decatur-Morgan Hospital before being transferred to the Birmingham hospital, where he died two days later on April 13. Following his death, an autopsy report was ordered.
The couple was arrested on January 26, 2022, and were initially charged with murder. In a March 2023 indictment, a grand jury charged them with felony murder. The difference is felony murder does not require an intent to kill, only to commit the underlying felony.
According to court documents, 28-year-old Jordan Ellan Harmon and Coleman are accused of “shaking, hitting, striking, or otherwise inflicting serious injury” to the child, along with “inflicting blunt force injuries on more than one occasion.” Documents also state that the pair did “torture, willfully abuse, cruelly beat or otherwise willfully maltreat” him.
Harmon, the child’s mother, was also charged with “refusing to seek medical attention…for having serious injuries that required medical attention and treatment, including, but not excluding injuries to his head, arm and groin area on at least three separate occasions.”
Harmon was arrested on April 12 and charged with aggravated child abuse. She was released on a $60,000 bond in September 2021.
Lawrence County Sheriff Max Sanders would later confirm the autopsy results showed the child died from blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy also revealed there were several other injuries, along with a toxicology report showing the “presence of compounds” similar to those found in cannabis in the child’s system.
Harmon and 28-year-old Travius Sebastian Coleman were both arrested in January 2022, following the release of the autopsy results. They were both charged with murder, aggravated child abuse and chemical endangerment of a child.
If convicted, each faces a minimum of 10 years up to life in prison. Both remain in jail on $1,680,000 bonds.
Lawrence County District Attorney Errek Jett said despite Harmon and Coleman being indicted separately, there is a possibility they could be tried together.
“It is early in the process, but the State reserves the right to ask that the cases be consolidated under Rule 13.3 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure,” Jett explained. “If the State makes such a request and Court grants it, the defendants still have a right to ask them to be [tried separately].”
Harmon is scheduled to arrive at the Lawrence County Courthouse on April 13, 2023, the two-year anniversary of Emery Michael-Knox Wilson’s death.
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