Janus Saintil of Deerfield Beach, Florida has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 7-week-old son after leaving him in the trunk of a vehicle he allegedly carjacked, The Palm Beach Post reports.
Saintil is being held without bond in the Broward County jail on charges that include “four counts of armed kidnapping, armed carjacking, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and an armed robbery warrant unrelated to the case.”
Want to Keep Up With NewsOne.com? LIKE Us On Facebook!
According to a police report cited by The Post, officers checked the car of a stolen black 2008 Kia in which Saintil was arrested and discovered a the man’s dead baby, Josiah Saintil, in a car seat covered by a diaper bag and blanket in the car’s trunk. Police also found a loaded semi-automatic pistol on the floor of the driver’s side.
Here are more details on the incident:
The incident began Thursday evening when Saintil, the baby and his mother, and a Broward County man and woman, drove to a North Lauderdale Walmart in the Kia, which is owned by the mother of one of the women. While in the store’s parking lot, Saintil and the baby’s mother began to argue inside the vehicle.
Police said Saintil pulled a pistol and forced one of the women to drive the car, with all still aboard, north to Port St. Lucie.
They stopped at a home in the 1200 block of Southwest Parma Street, where Saintil allegedly ordered the three adults, all 22, to stay in the car. Detectives said Saintil then went inside, taking the car keys and baby with him.
He came out a short while later without the baby, in the company of three unidentified men who entered a second vehicle. According to the arrest report, Saintil ordered the woman driving the Kia to follow that car to a second home in the 700 block of Southwest Dorchester Street.
There, detectives said, Saintil took cellphones from the three adults and again ordered them to stay in the car while he went briefly indoors.
After returning to the car and ordering its driver to another, unknown, location, detectives said the car stopped at a gasoline station in the 100 block of Northwest Bayshore Boulevard. There, Saintil allegedly ordered the two women to wait outside while he went indoors with the male hostage and ordered him to withdraw cash from an automated teller machine.
When Saintil fled the scene, he allegedly told Josiah’s mother that he was going to ‘kill’ their 2-month-old baby.” He reportedly went and got their baby from a home in Port St. Lucie and drove south to Broward County.
The exact cause of the baby’s death will be known when the autopsy report is completed.
