A Los Angeles babysitter brutally beat a 4-year-old girl in her care before taking the unresponsive infant to hospital on a public bus, police said.
Vanessa Denise Hawkins Scott, 53, allegedly opted not to dial 911 when little Mya Migneault passed out after the reported attack in Westlake last week.
Instead, she used public transport to get the child admitted. Not long after, however, the youngster was pronounced dead.
The county coroner ruled that Migneault, whose mother was in the South at the time of her death, died from blunt abdominal trauma.
Scott was arrested and charged with murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse.
She appeared in court Tuesday, where she pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is currently being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail.
Detectives are investigating why Migneault was left in Scott’s care, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Police Lt. Craig Herron said the girl’s mother, who is from Orlando, Fla., was away and “had no hand in this.”
Migneault’s grandfather Gary Greenberg said he had been left “devastated” by her death.
“All I can tell you is that Mya was my whole life,” said the 59-year-old Texan told the Los Angeles Times. “She never did anything. She was a perfect angel.”
Hawkins Scott is due back in court on April 7.
(Photos: Facebook)
