MS Coast baby suffered horrific death at hands of parents, all while CPS investigated
The abuse of a 4-month-old baby who died at the hands of his parents began before he was born, according to records filed in the case.
The child’s mother, Angel Ja’Nai Williams, 24, of Gulfport, told police she used the deadly painkiller, fentanyl, throughout her pregnancy, and continued to use the drug afterward.
As a result, the baby was born addicted to the drug.
The baby’s mother and the father he was named after, Denilson Marcus Elligson, are accused of abusing their child until he died April 23.
Elligson, 27, of Gulfport, is currently jailed in Harrison County on a charge of capital murder. Capital murder is a murder committed during the commission of another felony, in this case, child abuse.
Williams is jailed on charges of felony child abuse and hindering prosecution in her baby’s death because she didn’t seek help for the baby and tried to cover up what ultimately caused his death.
The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services was already investigating allegations of abuse against the infant before his death but took no action to get the child out of the home.
The Sun Herald has reached out to the agency for comment but has not heard back.
According to authorities and other records filed in the case, Elligson broke the baby boy’s ribs on multiple occasions before the baby died.
Elligson later confessed to police that he had caused the injuries over two months, records say.
Elligson admitted wrapping his hands around the baby’s midsection, and squeezing him until he stopped making noise.
The last time he did it on April 23, the records say, Elligson squeezed the baby until he “made a wheezing air noise, went limp and became unresponsive,” the records say.
When the baby went limp, Elligson told police he “squeezed the infant several times before calling 911.”
Gulfport police responded to a 911 call about the baby at the couple’s home on Lewis Avenue the afternoon he stopped breathing. When police got there, the baby had already been taken to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, where he died.
A subsequent autopsy showed the baby had several fractures, some of which were healing and had gone untreated before his death. He died of blunt force trauma to his body and asphyxiation.
Gulfport police officers found out about the ongoing CPS investigation after the baby’s death.
Since then, the state agency has removed a second child from the home.
