Mother Charged With Hitting 3-Year-Old Son
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Shakopee woman faces charges after she allegedly hit her 3-year-old son.
Jennifer Joyner, 33, is charged with one count of malicious punishment of a child in Scott County.
According to the criminal complaint, police were dispatched to the 1300 block of Norway Trail on the report of child abuse shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday. Officers learned that a girl had watched her mother hit her brother, the complaint says.
Officers met with the girl at her grandmother's house. She said that at 1:11 a.m., she received a FaceTime call from her mother, Joyner, who said she believed someone else was living inside of her son. Joyner added that she hated him.
The girl said she saw her brother hit her mother on the FaceTime call. Joyner slapped him in the face and he fell over, the complaint says.
Documents say the girl said she thought her brother hit his head because she heard Joyner tell him to "put pressure on it." She then said "I guess I have to take you to the hospital because you have a hole in your head," the complaint says.
Joyner then started calling her son "Charles," even though that is not his name. She also accused her daughter of being her dead aunt, and said "You're not my daughter" on the call before it ended, the complaint said.
Officers went to the house with a search warrant and saw a laceration on the boy's forehead. Joyner said he had hit is head on a nightstand.
If she is convicted, Joyner could face up to five years in prison.
