A Michigan woman, aged 24, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after being convicted of the brutal killing of a friend’s toddler while she was entrusted with babysitting duties. The tragic incident involved the death of a 23-month-old boy, Kyrie Starks, who succumbed to a fatal head injury after being violently thrown against a wall.

In a ruling handed down by Macomb County Circuit Judge Diane M. Druzinski, Kimora Launmei Hodges faced the full weight of the law for her actions in 2022. Her conviction included charges of felony murder and first-degree child abuse, resulting in a life sentence for the murder, alongside an additional 15 to 40 years for the child abuse offense.

The decision came swiftly after a jury needed only two hours in July to deliver a guilty verdict on both counts against Hodges. The case, however, saw its share of legal delays. Hodges’s defense had argued for the suppression of certain statements she made during initial police interrogations, claiming her rights were violated when detectives proceeded with questioning despite her asking for legal representation. Though an appellate court eventually excluded one of her statements from the trial, it did not affect the ultimate outcome.

Details of the crime surfaced when, as previously reported by Law&Crime, officers from the Roseville Police Department were alerted by hospital staff on June 22, 2022. The staff reported that a young boy had been admitted with severe head injuries about a week earlier, setting off the investigation that led to Hodges’s arrest and subsequent conviction.

As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Roseville Police Department on June 22, 2022, responded to a local hospital after staff reported that a young boy had been admitted with severe head trauma about one week earlier.

The victim’s mother had contacted police several days after picking him up from Hodges’s home in the 30000 block of Little Mack Avenue on June 13, 2022. Hodges, whose home is about 16 miles northeast of Detroit, was a neighbor and friend who had been babysitting the child on a semi-regular basis over the previous few months, particularly while the victim’s mother went to work.

Hodges had reportedly contacted the mother that evening and said that the victim did not look normal. The mother then rushed to Hodges’ home, finding her son in dire straits.

“Once I made it there my baby was on the ground having seizure, after seizure, after seizure,” she previously told Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK.

Hodges initially blamed the boy’s condition on an “allergic reaction” to “eating soap,” the mother wrote on a GoFundMe page for her son. The boy’s mother said that she initially believed Hodges was telling the truth about her son having an allergic reaction until the medical staff at the hospital explained the full extent of the boy’s physical injuries.

“I believed her until the doctors told me otherwise because i trusted her i feel so betrayed cause i would’ve done anything for [Hodges] & her daughter,” she wrote, noting that Hodges’s child was the same age as her son.

“He had blunt force trauma to the head and he was bleeding out his ears and had to have immediate brain surgery,” the mother told WJBK. “All I know is she threw my son into the wall and shook him up pretty bad and they said that’s just a bit of what she did to him.”

Following her arrest, investigators said Hodges admitted to inflicting the fatal injuries on Kyrie.

“That’s not what was not supposed to happen,” she told detectives during the subsequent interview, per court documents. “You all just want me to blame. You all just want me to say I put my anger on [the victim]. That’s not what it is.”

Hodges went on to say, “Maybe I hit him too hard, but I didn’t take my anger out on him.”

The babysitter was initially only facing one count of first-degree child abuse, but after Kyrie died on June 15, 2022, prosecutors charged her with an additional count of felony murder.

“The sentence handed down today reflects the severity of the crime committed,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said in a statement. “The defendant’s actions resulted in the tragic death of an innocent child, and the court has imposed a life sentence without the possibility of parole to hold her fully accountable. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family, whose lives have been forever changed by this senseless act. The justice system has a duty to protect the most vulnerable, and today’s sentence underscores that duty.”