Joplin mother charged with injuring baby waives hearing

Dec. 9—A 26-year-old Joplin mother charged with shaking and injuring her 4-month-old son in October waived a preliminary hearing Thursday and was ordered to stand trial.

Lacey A. Davies waived the hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court on a felony count of child abuse, and Associate Judge Joseph Hensley set her initial appearance in a trial division for Jan. 25.

A probable-cause affidavit states that the baby was lying on his back in his mother's bed when she became frustrated with his fussing and picked him up and shook him.

The affidavit states that she demonstrated how she shook him for a detective using a similar size of doll before her arrest Oct. 27. The detective wrote that Davies held the doll shoulder high and shook it from side to side, causing its head to snap back and forth, and admitted that she had reacted "in a violent manner."

The boy ended up at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City diagnosed with abusive head trauma, some hemorrhaging, broken ribs and bruising. He was placed in the care of a family member when released from the hospital.