Foster mom charged with murder of boy
St. Petersburg Times
Author: KEVIN E. WASHINGTON
BOB PORT
JOHN D. McKINNON
TAMPA - A 40-year-old Tampa woman was charged Wednesday with murdering her 5-year-old foster son, who died in January after being hit in the head for not saying his prayers properly, authorities said.
Rosa Lee Jones, of 3211 Lancastor Lane, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said. Her four other adopted and foster children have been in state custody since the 5-year-old died.
Albert Smith's skull was fractured when he was hit twice in the head with a wooden board on Jan. 8, sheriff's spokesman Jack Espinosa said. The boy died one day later.
State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) records show that Mrs. Jones had been having problems with her foster children - particularly with Albert, who had learning disabilities:
- Albert Smith and his brother, Eugene, 4, told HRS investigators that Mrs. Jones had smacked Albert across the buttocks with a board in November 1987, a violation of state rules for foster parents.
- Albert had asked to be removed from the home after the November spanking incident. Mrs. Jones also had asked that the two foster children at the home be removed because she was feeling ''stress.'' She withdrew her request a month later.
- Mrs. Jones' home was overcrowded, with four foster children and three adopted children when it was last re-licensed in February 1987. Just before Albert died, there were five children in the home - three adopted and two foster.
- HRS licensing officials had reservations about Mrs. Jones in 1979 when they initially approved her as a foster mother because she was ''somewhat fanatical'' in her religious beliefs.
''It's always upsetting,'' Joseph Tagliarini, a sub-district administrator for HRS, said of Albert's death. ''You know that when you have law enforcement investigating, there could be something wrong and you hope it isn't true.''
Detectives arrested Mrs. Jones on Wednesday morning as she attended an HRS hearing at an office in downtown Tampa. HRS officials refused to disclose the nature of the hearing.
But sheriff's spokeswoman Deborah Carter said the hearing concerned the placement of the four other children. Officials have said that the three adopted children were placed with relatives after Albert's death, but they would not disclose their whereabouts or that of Albert's brother Eugene on Wednesday.
When Mrs. Jones was arrested, she was wearing a sweatshirt that read ''Hugs Are Better Than Drugs'' on the front and ''Jesus is the Rock'' on the back.
Late Wednesday, she was in the Hillsborough County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Mrs. Jones brought Albert to Brandon Humana Hospital at 12:05 a.m. on Jan. 9 after he had stopped breathing. He died 11 hours later.
She told sheriff's deputies at the time that she didn't know what had happened to him. Deputies said they didn't suspect foul play when they initially investigated the death.
Sheriff's Sgt. Gordon Davis said the investigation took a new twist after interviews with several people in her home.
According to a criminal affidavit, a 4-year-old boy interviewed at the home March 23 told deputies that ''his mommy struck (the) victim in the head two times with a board.'' Deputies were not willing to say if the witness was Albert's brother.
Davis said Nathaniel Jones, Mrs. Jones husband, was not charged in the murder and is not a suspect. ''That could change,'' he said.
HRS officials received their first indication of spankings at the Jones home on Nov. 10, 1987, when a caller described overhearing ''Mrs. Jones disciplining a foster child in the bedroom behind a closed door'' and then seeing Mrs. Jones emerge from the bedroom ''carrying a board.''
The disciplined child was Albert Smith, the caller said, and on Nov. 12 three HRS workers went to see Albert and his brother at the St. Peter Claver Day Care Center for children with learning disabilities.
''Albert started to cry,'' the HRS incident report says. He said Mrs. Jones ''beats me with a belt'' and confirmed that Mrs. Jones had ''hit me with a board because I was bad,'' the report says.
There were no bruises or scars to prove child abuse, but Albert said he wanted to live with his uncle.
State rules prohibit foster parents from using any form of corporal punishment.
Mrs. Jones denied striking Albert and claimed that she had really struck an adopted son for firing a BB gun in a bedroom. Then, the report shows, she complained she was ''stressed out'' and she asked that HRS move the Smith children to a new home.
It was not Mrs. Jones' first request for help. On an annual licensing questionnaire she gave HRS in January 1987 she said she wanted ''some training in working with physical emotionally handicapped children.'' Nevertheless, a training log in Mrs. Jones' file suggests that she never received any training from HRS.
After Albert's spanking, HRS workers agreed only to provide more support and monitor the children weekly for a month.
Why didn't HRS grant Albert Smith's request to leave?
''Many children say things like that,'' said Marilyn Clubb, who heads licensing of foster parents for HRS in Tampa. ''What we have to weigh is the overall picture,'' she said. ''Every move we make for a child from one foster home to another is damaging.''
And why didn't HRS help Mrs. Jones with training?
''It's a weakness in the program - in-service training. It's something we need to do more of,'' Tagliarini said.
HRS District Administrator Greg Mathison said that despite the prior spanking at the Jones home, he feels HRS workers never had indications the spankings could grow into child abuse.
''If we had to act on every spanking, we'd be going to thousands of homes a day,'' he said. For foster parents, ''it's a licensing violation,'' he said.
Several residents living in the small Clair Mel community described Mrs. Jones as a model neighbor. ''She and her husband would go out of their way to help people,'' Charlie Ross said. ''She brought some groceries for a sick neighbor and even cooked for him.''
James H. Brown, Mrs. Jones' ex-husband who lives several doors away, said he couldn't believe the charges. He described Mrs. Jones as a ''good Christian woman.''
''She was easy-going and caring,'' said Brown, who has been divorced from Mrs. Jones for 20 years. ''She was respectful in the neighborhood. She was a homebody person. You couldn't find a better family to bring up the children in. I would put them both up there as far as good moral standing.''
Brown said the family frequently spent time at church.
Religion had been an issue with Mrs. Jones at the time she applied to be a foster parent in July 1979. An HRS counselor noted:
''Mrs. Jones is a member of the Holiness faith and considers herself to be a missionary. She says she is in Church when she is not at home. Mrs. Jones' religion is obviously very important to her, and she might border on being somewhat fanatical about it. This should be taken into consideration when placing children in her home.''
Nevertheless, she and her husband were seen as a caring, well-qualified couple who kept a clean home. They were licensed as foster parents and re-licensed each year since.
Mrs. Jones' willingness to raise children wasn't lost on HRS. She cared for 10 children over seven years. Eventually she and her husband adopted a girl and two boys they had cared for, the agency's records say. But by 1986, her three-bedroom home had become overcrowded: Seven children occupied two bedrooms, while HRS guidelines called for five children per home.
An exception was made, with the understanding that Mrs. Jones would provide separate beds for all the children at her home. Mrs. Jones, HRS records show, was asking that two children be removed to make the number more manageable.