(Updated) Mother of Slain Columbia Toddler Indicted on Child Abuse, Assault Charges

This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Monday to include details in the first 11 paragraphs on the indictment and bond reduction of Joaquinia LaJeuness. The correct bond amount was updated at 5:50 p.m.

A Howard County grand jury has indicted the mother of Elijah LaJeuness, the 3-year-old boy whose killing at his Columbia home has gone unsolved for almost nine months, on two counts of child abuse and one count of assault.

The charges are for abuse police said occurred in November of 2010.

Howard County State's Attorney Colleen McGuinn said during a bond review hearing that while investigating Elijah's death, police learned of new information that was enough to produce the current indictment, though details of the new information were not released.

Joaquinia LaJeuness, 28, whom police said did not cooperate in the investigation of her son’s death, is charged with two counts of second-degree child abuse and one count of second-degree assault, as well as contributing to acts and omission, according to court records.

She has not been charged in her son's homicide.

Howard County police said Monday that the Department of Social Services received a report on Nov. 3, 2010 that Elijah LaJeuness, then 2, had marks and bruises on his face. A doctor's review said the injuries were not accidental.

Joaquinia LaJeuness' was released Thursday, but without her name. The indictment was unsealed Monday, according to online court records.

Joaquinia LaJeuness' $250,000 bond was reduced Monday to $25,000. She was initially being held at the Howard County Detention Center after being detained Saturday at 11 a.m., said Cpl. Freeman with the Howard County Department of Corrections, who declined to give his first name. Police said she was arrested Friday in Meridian, MI.

was found unresponsive and not breathing, according to police. Police said three people were in the house at the 9600 block of Basket Ring Road in Columbia -- his mother, her boyfriend and an 8-year-old sibling. The child was taken to where he was pronounced dead, according to records.

Details of the case were released by police July 28. The death was ruled homicide by asphyxia.

Repeated efforts to reach Joaquinia LaJeuness have been unsuccessful, though she attended a funeral service for her son in April, from which the accompanying photo was taken.

Her marriage to Elijah’s father, Robert LaJeuness, also 28, has been annulled, according to documents obtained by Patch. The October 2006 marriage was registered in Fairfax County, VA, according to a marriage certificate.

Shayla-René Little, director of the Elsie M. Brown School of the Arts, a series of dance classes offered at community centers in Columbia, had taught hip-hop to children at the dance school for the past year.

According to Joaquinia’s online bio on the dance school website, she danced for various dance teams during college at California State University, Sacramento, and has a bachelor’s degree from that institution in child development.

Little that Joaquinia was devoted to her children, whom she sometimes brought with her to dance classes. Joaquinia has another child in addition to Elijah, a daughter, according to child protective service documents.

“Her children were her priority," Little said. "They were her main concern.” 

Friends and family of the slain child have been publicly calling for answers since the homicide was announced.

In August, that showed that the year before he died, many adults, including doctors and social workers, investigated injuries to Elijah, ranging from bruises to his forehead and ears to burns on the tops of his feet.

“Nothing was ever done,” said Bethany Kennedy, a former roommate of Robert LaJeuness, who lives in Hyattsville. “They brushed it off. 'He was 3 years old, it was normal bumps and bruises.' … It was too constant to be the normal wear and tear of a child. A child doesn’t burn his feet.”

the allegations were part of the ongoing investigation. There was no word on any charges relating directly to the boy's death.

In December, friends of Robert LaJeuness and Elijah gathered to celebrate what would have been the child’s fourth birthday.

said he had “faith in Detective [Aaron] Miller and his staff to solve this case.”

“I have confidence there will be justice,” he said during the gathering. “I don’t know how much confidence I have in the state for allowing this to happen."

Elijah LaJeuness’s death is one of two unsolved homicides in 2011 in Howard County, which recorded a total of seven.

The other is that of , a quadriplegic from Ellicott City, whose February oxycodone overdose death was declared a homicide in November.

See our past coverage of the Elijah LaJeuness case: