While conducting their interview, officers witnessed poor living conditions in the home including no running water in the kitchen or bathroom. Deputy Williams noticed what appeared to be a smoking apparatus in a back room. The father told the officer that they used the device to smoke THC.
On April 10, 2025, Deputy Williams received the post-mortem examination report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The report revealed that alcohol was found in the child’s system. The amount detected, according to the Medical Examiner’s office was sufficient to cause death.
Deputy Smith and local State Troopers, armed with the new evidence, interviewed the parents at their residence and at the State Police headquarters in Sutton. During one of those sessions, the mother told officers that Smith had told her he would take alcohol and rub on the infant child’s gums and around her mouth when the baby would get irritable and fussy. A short time later, Smith stated that he and the mother had both engaged in the practice and that they had done it almost daily for a month prior to the infant’s death.
The pair were placed under arrest and later arraigned on the charges before Braxton County Magistrate Beth Smith. The matter will be transferred to Circuit Court. Both James Smith and Angel Talbert have been lodged in the Central Regional Jail awaiting additional court proceedings.
