New details emerge in capital murder case against Biloxi mother in baby’s beating death
Five-month-old Kalianna Hill Gibbs had fractures in her ribs and both wrists, bleeding in her right ear, abrasions to her nose and one of her feet, and skin discoloration had started to set in by the time her parents got her to Merit Health hospital in June, a Biloxi police investigator said in a hearing Thursday.
The little girl died before her parents, Summer Rose Hill, 20, and Takavian Gibbs, 21, got her to the Biloxi hospital around 12:30 p.m. on June 13, 2024, Biloxi police investigator Lance Miller said.
An autopsy performed later showed that the baby had new and old fractured ribs along with internal bruising around the right kidney, an organ in her upper chest and around her bowels, large lacerations to her liver and the right adrenal gland, and internal hemorrhaging.
The medical examiner determined the cause of death was homicide caused by blunt force trauma to the body, the investigator said.
Hill is charged with capital murder in her child’s death, while the father is facing a single charge of felonious child abuse.
Capital murder is a murder committed during the commission of a felony crime, in this child abuse.
On Thursday, Harrison County Court Judge Alison Baker determined that after hearing testimony at the hearing, there was enough evidence to bind the case over to a grand jury for indictment.
Hill remains jailed without bond pending grand jury action.
Harrison County prosecuting attorney Herman Cox questioned Miller during the hearing, and Assistant District Attorney Mara Joffe was also present.
During the hearing, Hill’s attorney, Scott Lusk, questioned why Hill was the only parent arrested for capital murder in the child’s death based on testimony from the investigator.
The criminal investigation began, Miller said after Biloxi police responded to a 12:52 p.m. call about the dead baby at Merit Health.
Hill’s sister drove the child’s mother, father and the baby to the hospital. Miller said all three stayed at the same apartment north of Division Street on Benachi Avenue.
When police questioned the parents about what had happened to the little girl, neither could explain the injuries, the investigator said.
Instead, Hill said she was up with the baby throughout the night, bathing her and then lying her down in her bassinet next to the couch, where she fell asleep.
Hill said her baby was alive when she went to sleep.
The baby’s father, the investigator said, told police the baby was wrapped in a blanket and sleeping in the bassinet when he left the apartment.
Gibbs told police, Miller said, that when he left, he went to see a friend to smoke some weed, went to a park to play basketball with some juveniles he only knew by their nicknames, and then returned home. However, Miller said police could not find the juveniles Gibbs claimed he had met up with.
In his statement, Gibbs told police he had been gone for about three hours when he left and returned to find the baby unconscious in her bassinet.
Miller said police had confirmed what Gibbs had told them through camera footage that police discovered.
However, Miller said he didn’t have the case file with him when he first started testifying, and the judge recessed the hearing to give him time to collect the material and bring it back to court after the defense attorney requested it.
After reviewing his case file, the investigator said Gibbs had left the apartment at 12:09 p.m. and returned at 12:28 p.m., which shows that he had not left the apartment for hours, as previously stated in the records.
“So, he was only gone 19 minutes, so in this magical 19 minutes, that is when she beat the child?” Lusk pressed the investigator.
Miller said the camera footage showed that after Gibbs returned to the apartment, he was seen running out shortly after with the baby in his arms and Hill and her sister following so they could get to the hospital.
Miller said the video surveillance confirmed Gibbs had left, though his time away was off by more than two hours.
“I’m at a complete loss here,” Lusk said. “Why is everything pointed at her?
“Wouldn’t it be a little more plausible that T.K. (allegedly) beat the child, and he’s like, “‘Oh, man, I’ve got to get out of here, and he leaves and comes back,’” Lusk said.
In response, Miller said, “Anything is possible.”
Hill told investigators that she had been up all night, bathed the baby, cleaned up a little, and then fell asleep on the couch next to the bassinet, where her child was wrapped in a blanket.
According to the investigator, Hill claimed Gibbs woke her up when he returned to the apartment and said the baby was unresponsive. Hill said she didn’t know what had happened to her child.
Both parents claimed to have attempted CPR on the baby but said they didn’t know the proper way to do it.
Gibbs also told investigators that he had seen Hill “toss” the baby around before that day.
Lusk questioned the validity of the statement from Gibbs given the inaccurate amount of time he initially said he had been gone from the apartment before discovering Kalianna unconscious.
This story was originally published October 18, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
