2-Year-Old Lakeland Boy Was 'Fussy,' Autopsy Showed Why

LAKELAND, FL – A Lakeland man has been charged with aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder after reportedly slamming a 2-year-old's head against a concrete floor.

On Friday, Aug. 31, at 10:56 p.m., Lakeland Police responded to a home on North Stella Avenue near East 1st Street after receiving a 911 call reporting that 2-year-old Mekhi Laster had stopped breathing.

Officers began CPR until Lakeland Fire Rescue arrived and took the boy to Lakeland Regional Health where he was declared dead.

The boy’s mother, Lamonica Laster, told police she had left her son in the care of her best friend, Jamal Carson, 24, for about two weeks because she was "going through some things." Laster has five other children.

She said Carson never gave her any indication that he was having trouble with the boy.

"He could have come to me," she said. "He could have let me know it was too much to handle."

Carson told police that the toddler became "fussy" on Aug. 31. Carson believed the boy had a broken foot and was in pain.

The child became feverish so Carson held him next to the air conditioner to cool him down but it didn't work so, after about 20 minutes, Carson called 911.

During an autopsy on Sept. 4, the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office quickly discovered the reason for the boy’s fussiness.

The medical examiner found bruises on his back, face and lips, an injury to his abdomen, broken ribs, a swollen scrotum, internal bleeding and blunt force trauma to the skull.

The medical examiner listed the cause of death as homicide.

During a subsequent interview with Carson on Tuesday, Sept. 4, he admitted to becoming frustrated with the toddler and punching him a number of times, squeezing him and slamming his head on a concrete floor twice.

Carson is being held without bond.

Image via Lakeland Police