PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A babysitter accused of abusing a 1-year-old in his care was arrested Friday, weeks after the case drew widespread attention because it seemed he wouldn’t face charges.
Markell D. Hilaire, 27, faces felony charges of 3rd- and 4th-degree assault and criminal mistreatment for the alleged abuse in March. He appeared in court Monday afternoon in Washington County after surrendering Friday.
He entered a plea of not guilty with bail set at $10,000. His next court appearance is June 27.
The boy’s parents, Joshua Marbury and Alicia Quinney, noticed a side of his face was black-and-blue the morning after they had left the boy, Jacob, with Hilaire, a family friend.
Quinney told KOIN 6 News on Monday she’s glad Hilaire was arrested and she feels as if a weight was lifted from their shoulders. She also thanked the community for their support.
But Dionne Hilaire, the suspect’s aunt, told KOIN 6 News the parents are as much to blame as her nephew.
“I want everyone who was involved in this, including the parents, to be held accountable,” she said. “You don’t leave your children in the hands of drunk people. You just don’t do it.”
She said her nephew admitted hitting Jacob and he turned himself in last Friday. “He’s been receiving death threats,” she said.
But Jacob’s parents, she said, left their 2 kids with a drunk babysitter.
“Make sure when you’re pleading to God and everything and you want Markell to go down for all this, you make sure you plead to God that he would forgive you for putting your kids in danger.”
The case
The parents told KOIN 6 News Hilaire at first said he didn’t know what happened, but then, they said, he dropped Jacob on cement outside their door
But that story didn’t make sense to Marbury and Quinney because Jacob didn’t have any scrapes.
But there were dots underneath his collar bone, marks inside and around his ear, bruises on his arm and his back.
Marbury said the babysitter later admitted to police hitting Jacob, but said police needed to build a case before making any arrest.
Time passed and no charges were filed. The case was under evaluation because of a 2012 Oregon court ruling making it tougher to prosecute abuse cases with victims who can’t talk.
Marbury then posted the story and pictures to Facebook, gaining worldwide attention and spawning the #JusticeForJacob hashtag. The story has been shared more than 400,000 times.
They also began a Change.org petition to make it easier to convict child abusers. As of Monday, more than 55,000 people have signed the petition.
KOIN 6 News will have more information later in the day.
Filed under: Crime, Editor's Pick, Top Video, Washington County
