Police: Baby Boy in 'Very Critical' Condition; Parents in Jail

Images: Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office

Spotsylvania County police arrested a local couple Tuesday evening on child abuse charges after their four-month-old son was airlifted last week to a Richmond hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The parents of the child, identified as Janine Heerick, 24, and Leonard Parker III, 25 (in photos above), were charged with several counts of felony child neglect and felony child cruelty, according to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office. Both suspects are being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford County.

The condition of the infant is listed as very critical, the sheriff’s office said. The baby boy is being treated at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Richmond, part of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) medical complex.

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On March 2, Spotsylvania police detectives were contacted by officials at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, the sheriff’s office said. The hospital officials told them that a four-month-old baby boy had been brought to the emergency room in critical condition, suffering from suspicious injuries. The infant was subsequently flown to Richmond for advanced care.

The detectives, along with investigators from the Child Protective Services (CPS) division of the Virginia Department of social Services, responded to the intensive-care unit at Children’s Hospital in Richmond, where they probed the circumstances surrounding the infant victim’s injuries.

They also interviewed Parker and Heerick, and searched their residence at 5704 Castlebridge Road in the Salem Run Apartments. They obtained the search warrants with assistance from the CPS investigators and the local Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the sheriff’s office said.

Following the investigation, the Spotsylvania police obtained six felony arrest warrants each for Parker and Heerick, the infant’s natural parents.