A West Virginia couple has been arrested and charged with murder after their infant daughter died with dangerously high levels of alcohol in her system. Authorities allege the parents routinely rubbed ethanol around the baby’s mouth to calm her when she was fussy.
James Joseph Smith and Angel Talbert were taken into custody last week and face charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, child neglect resulting in death, and conspiracy, according to court records obtained by Law & Crime.
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The investigation began on November 16, 2024, when Braxton County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about an unresponsive infant at Braxton County Memorial Hospital. Officers arrived around 8:22 a.m. and noted the baby’s face appeared discolored, “as if the baby had been face down.”
Police later questioned the parents at their Gassaway home. Smith claimed he woke between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to use the bathroom and found the baby not breathing in her crib. He said he “immediately” told Talbert to call 911. The couple then drove the infant toward the hospital, meeting an ambulance en route. Medical personnel performed lifesaving measures, but the child was pronounced dead at 5:32 a.m.
Talbert reportedly supported Smith’s account, telling investigators the baby had no prior health issues. However, on April 10, 2025, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed the infant’s liver tissue tested positive for ethanol at a fatal level of 3.21, WSAZ reports.
When confronted with the findings four days later, the parents allegedly insisted their daughter was healthy and not on medication. But during a follow-up interview on April 16, Talbert changed her story, admitting that Smith had confessed to rubbing alcohol on the baby’s gums to soothe her.
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“[Talbert] told [investigators] that after the first interview on 04/14/2025, James Smith told her that he would take alcohol and rub [it] on the infant child’s gums and around her mouth when the infant would get irritable and fussy,” court documents state. Smith later admitted both parents had engaged in the practice “almost every day for a month before the infant’s death.”
The couple was arrested and remains held without bond at Central Regional Jail. Prosecutors are pursuing the case as one of the most severe instances of child neglect in recent state history.
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