Mother charged in stabbing death of daughter, 3, in North Miami Beach apartment

North Miami Beach police scrambled to an apartment early Tuesday morning after a woman called saying she had killed her child, police said.

When they arrived, they found a much more complicated and grisly scene: A 3-year-old girl was dead with fatal wounds to her neck and chest. They also found the child’s mother — the only other person in the apartment — walking around and talking incomprehensibly, according to a law enforcement source.

According to Miami-Dade Corrections, the child’s mother, Jellisa Baxter, 24, was booked into jail just after 2 p.m. and charged with aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder. She was denied bond. Police sources said her young daughter’s name is Arya Smith.

Police had not commented on the case by mid-afternoon, other than posting a feed to a Twitter account saying they “can confirm that the child (3 year old female victim) was stabbed by the mother.”

Public records show that Greenview Apartments on Dec. 15 filed an action in Miami-Dade court seeking her eviction. And a neighbor who spoke with the Miami Herald said it wasn’t unusual to see Baxter upset and striking at her child.

Baxter’s arrest form, which shows police arrived at the apartment at 2:11 a.m., also claims when she made the initial 911 call, she told police she was wearing a white robe. When they arrived, she was still wearing the robe, her daughter was found with “several deep stab wounds to her neck, chest and face.” A knife was on the ground next to the child, police said.

Baxter, according to her arrest report, refused to speak with police after they arrived.

Carla Cuadra, who lives near apartment 311, where the little girl was found, said she heard Arya crying early this morning, and later, police banging on the apartment door. Her son Sagastume, called Arya “a friend” and said he enjoyed playing with her.

The scene at the apartment late Tuesday morning was mostly quiet and cut off to the public with police tape. Still. some cars tried to navigate the narrow road and most of the noise was coming from a nearby auto shop. Two marked police vehicles were parked near the three-story, rectangular beige building where the alleged homicide took place. It wasn’t clear if the child was still there.

Baxter’s Instagram page, which has more than 5,000 followers, says she’s a mom and a holistic health coach. It also includes links to other social media sites where she spoke about healthy foods and wellness.

Arya’s death echoed the April murders of 3-year-old Jeffrey Belval and his 5-year-old sister Laural Belval. The two were found hog-tied and strangled in a Little Haiti apartment. When police arrived, they found the mother of the children “agitated” and “incoherent.”

In her call to 911, Odette Joassaint, 41, told them to “come get them. I don’t want them anymore.” She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Alexander Leon, who owns a business near the apartment complex where Arya was found, stopped by the apartment when he noticed the commotion, but was halted by the crime scene tape. A young father, Leon said he was surprised to hear it was a suspected murder of a child.

“I’ve seen a lot. It’s on the main street. You see a lot of people getting run over,” he said. “So, that’s really what you mostly see. But something like this? No, it’s usually quiet around here.”