John Jefferson
Inset: Jessica Meade (Floyd County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where she allegedly wrapped her toddler in blankets and duct tape (Google Maps).
ALT: Mom filmed wrapping her crying 1-year-old’s ‘entire body’ in ‘blankets and duct tape,’ blamed baby’s near suffocation on eating ‘shellfish’
A 28-year-old mother in Indiana will spend more than a decade behind bars for physically abusing her 13-month-old son, nearly killing the child by wrapping him in blankets and duct tape. Floyd County Superior Court Judge Carrie K. Stiller earlier this month ordered Jessica Meade to serve a sentence of 16 years in a state correctional facility after Meade pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, authorities announced.
In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop an additional felony charge of aggravated assault posing a substantial risk of death originally filed against Meade, records show. Stiller credited Meade with 370 days of time already served and prohibited her from having any contact with the victim.
“It is a terrible tragedy when a parent, who is the one person who is supposed to protect their child from the hardships of the world, is responsible for the abuse,” Deputy Prosecutor Kristin Perdue said in a statement.
Meade’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Ethan J.T. Coleman, was also arrested and charged with neglect of a dependent and aggravated battery in connection with the incident, records show. He has remained in detention on $100,000 cash bond since his initial arrest last year.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the New Albany Police Department at about 3:26 p.m. on Sept. 24, 2023, responded to a residence in the 1000 block of Spring Street in reference to an unconscious 1-year-old boy who was “possibly not breathing.”
When deputies arrived, emergency medical personnel informed them that the victim and the victim’s mother, Jessica Meade, were already on their way to Baptist Floyd Hospital. The paramedics further explained that when they first reached the scene, they found Meade with the victim, whom they said “had aspirated” and was “pale and barely breathing.”
One of the officers volunteered to drive Meade’s 6-year-old daughter and Coleman to the hospital. On the way, Coleman allegedly said he gave the victim “shellfish” during dinner and believed the toddler had some kind of allergic reaction. Coleman said they put the child down for a nap and noticed about five or 10 minutes later that the victim “had vomited and appeared to be choking.”
The victim’s doctors told police that the victim “went approximately 15-20 minutes with little or no oxygen” and as a result, he had “brain stem death and will remain in a vegetative state,” per the affidavit.
On Sept. 29, 2023, a Department of Child Services caseworker told investigators that Meade and Coleman had provided “four different stories” explaining how they discovered the victim was not breathing. The caseworker also said she was “shown a video of Coleman and Meade wrapping [the victim] in layers of blankets with duct tape.
The timestamp showed the footage beginning at about 9:08 a.m. on Sept, 24, more than six hours before Meade and Coleman called 911. The video allegedly shows the victim “crying loudly” as Coleman enters the room carrying several blankets and tells Meade’s 6-year-old daughter to “roll over on the couch and look away.” Meade then lays the toddler atop a blanket spread out on the floor.
While holding the victim down by the arms, Coleman is shown “wrapping [the victim’s] entire body and face up with several blankets” and at one point even “putting his hand over [the victim’s] face on top of the blankets,” police wrote. Several more blankets were then allegedly wrapped around the victim.
“Meade brings more blankets to Coleman to continue wrapping [the victim’s] entire body up and more muffled cries,” the affidavit states. “Coleman lays his body on [the victim] several times while Meade stands by and watches. Meade then retrieves what appears to be a roll of duct tape and hands it to Coleman, and you can still seem to hear [the victim’s] muffled cries. Coleman duct tapes the blankets around [the victim’s] body. Coleman sits on the floor with [the victim], holding him until no more cries can be heard.”
The press release from the prosecutor’s office said authorities obtained a tape “showcasing Meade wrapping the child in layers of blankets and duct tape.”
Coleman is currently scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference on Nov. 25, 2024. His trial before Judge Stiller is slated to begin on March 17, 2025.
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