Jovan Cooper is a single mom raising four young kids.
As she often does, she left them with a 13-year old babysitter to work the overnight shift at a Walmart last weekend.
“This is somebody that I knew and trusted, that had loved my children I thought, taken good care of my kids, played with my kids, and I treated her as if she my family,” she said.
“I want people to realize that I don’t go out, I don’t go to movies, I don’t go to the bar, I don’t do any of that stuff. I just went to work.”
When Cooper returned, she looked briefly in her son Nicholas’s crib but then later noticed something was wrong.
It was something, she believes, the babysitter chose not to tell her.
“He wasn’t breathing, he was just stone cold and blue,” Cooper said.
The teenager slept over and was there at the time but gave no explanation for the baby’s condition.
Though Cooper called 911, it was too late.
She said her 4-year old later told her what happened.
“She said ‘Mommy the baby was crying and didn’t want to stop crying, so she hit the baby,’” Cooper said. “And we noticed the bruising on my son’s face and that was not there when I went to work.”
She hopes her story helps others value their own children more.
“Love your children, squeeze your children tighter,” she said.
An official cause of death has not been released. Cooper said she was told it could be months before charges are filed.