An Oxford woman has been charged with murder in the death of her 7-month-old daughter earlier this year.
26-year-old Shelby D. Johnson faces a count of first-degree murder in the death of Jesslinn Hulett. Sumner Co. Attorney Kerwin Spencer filed the charge, and others, this morning in Sumner County District Court in Wellington.
KAKE News reports that Johnson was arrested this afternoon and is being held on $250,000 bond.
Spencer also filed alternative counts of first degree murder and second-degree murder. This is often done when prosecutors have more than one theory as to how exactly a crime transpired.
It would be up to a jury, should the case go to trial, to determine which murder charge, if any, is supported by the evidence in the case. Charges were also filed against Johnson for child abuse and aggravated endangering of a child.
Hulett was taken to Sumner Regional Medical Center in Wellington on the morning of April 1 for treatment of injuries. She was later transported to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita and died there on April 5.
Wellington police were first called to the hospital to investigate the circumstances of the child’s injuries. After the child died, the case became a suspicious death investigation.
Johnson lives in Oxford but had been staying at a home at 120 N. Woodlawn in Wellington, with her baby, at the time the child was hurt.
Jesslinn Hulett
KAKE News has posted the charging documents here.
