Baby Left Alone Suffocates While Mom At Hookah Bar; Arrest Made: Sheriff

POLK COUNTY, FL – A 19-year-old Winter Haven mother was arrested Thursday for the death of her 8-month-old child, who reportedly was left unattended on a sofa, became tangled in a blanket and suffocated while the woman went out with a friend, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Jada LeBoeuf was charged with suspicion of aggravated manslaughter for the death of daughter Journey LeBoeuf.

LeBoeuf was gone from her home for nearly five hours when Journey was discovered unresponsive on the couch on the morning of Feb. 13, deputies said.

Watch: Baby Left Alone Suffocates While Mom At Hookah Bar; Arrest Made

"This terrible tragedy was 100 percent preventable," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "It is beyond comprehension how a mother could leave her child alone for five hours. That beautiful little baby girl should be alive today."

According to the arrest affidavit, Journey lived with her mother, aunt and maternal grandparents at a home on the 3200 block of Avenue Q Northwest, where her mother, Jada, typically would sleep on a living room couch with Journey sleeping in a nearby car seat.

Family members reported last seeing Journey alive Feb. 12 evening as they went to bed, and the following morning around 4:40 a.m. did not see Jada or Journey -- only Journey's empty car seat and Jada's blanket on the couch -- and assumed they left together, the agency said.

Upon LeBoeuf's return home at approximately 5:30 a.m., she found the baby tangled in the blanket and unresponsive.

LeBoeuf initially told detectives she left home at 3 a.m. to get something to eat with a friend, and left Journey on the couch, and did not want to awaken anyone, according to reports. She added that she and her friend went to an Auburndale McDonald's, then had car trouble.

Investigators contend, however, that the mother lied abut her activities as they determined that she, in fact, left the house with a friend at 12:45 a.m., stopped at a hookah bar in Lakeland, which was closed, proceeded to a hookah bar in Orlando, then went to McDonald's in Kissimmee, according to the agency.

LeBoeuf allegedly failed to tell family members she was leaving, and despite her mother texting her at 4:45 a.m. inquiring where she was, LeBoeuf did not ask her mother to check on Journey.

"No one in the family had realized that Journey was in the home, tangled in the blanket," the sheriff's department said.

An autopsy conducted by the Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the child's cause of death as suffocation. Based upon the investigation, deputies determined that LeBoeuf failed to provide Journey with the care and supervision necessary to maintain the victim's physical health, a failure that resulted in the victim's death.

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--Image via Polk Co. Sheriff