Murder charge certified against teen mother

STAUNTON — A Staunton judge Monday certified a first-degree murder charge against a teenage girl accused of suffocating her infant daughter.

Police testified that Ashkea Johnson, 17, of Staunton, confessed to the crime, saying she wanted 2-month-old Rosaleeia M. Johnson to “go away.”

Her head bowed for most of the preliminary hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Johnson listened for about 45 minutes as Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Anne Reed questioned authorities.

Staunton police Inv. Chad Nestor testified that in addition to the killing last fall, Johnson confessed to halting an earlier attempt on the child’s life.

“Initially there were a lot of discrepancies about her stories, but at the end of the interview she actually confessed to suffocating Rosaleeia,” Nestor testified.

The discrepancies included conflicting stories about Johnson’s whereabouts, Nestor said. Those questions eventually were resolved, he said.

“She said Rosaleeia had become a hinderance in her life, and that she’d be happier if she wasn’t around,” the investigator testified.

Authorities responded to Johnson’s Staunton apartment Nov. 15 to find Rosaleeia “lifeless, blue in color and frothing at the mouth.”

“Based on the looks of the infant, it did not look like any resuscitation attempts had been made,” said rescue worker George Fitzgerald.

Authorities took Rosaleeia to Augusta Health in Fishersville, where emergency room staff hooked her body to a life-support machine. She was not breathing and did not have a pulse, authorities said. Scott Just, an emergency room physician, said the baby showed symptoms consistent with suffocation and neglect.

The child was then taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville where doctors disconnected her from life support.

Nestor said that during her confession Johnson described using a plastic bag to suffocate the child.

“She put the bag over the mouth and nose of the baby and pressed,” Nestor said. “She held until she quit moving.”

Afterward, Nestor said, Johnson placed Rosaleeia’s body in a chair, stepped into a bathroom and splashed water onto her face.

The R.E. Lee High School student then stood for a moment, cleared her thoughts and cried a little before calling police, Nestor said. According to the investigator, Johnson attempted the same procedure a week before, but didn’t follow through because “she got
scared.”

Rosaleeia’s father, Elrico Rexrode, and grandmother Catherine Rexrode declined to comment after the hearing, saying, “We were told we would be better off leaving well enough alone.”

Johnson is being held in the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention Center in Verona. She is scheduled to appear before a grand jury April 19. The case at that time would be transferred from juvenile to Staunton Circuit Court, officials said.

Prosecutors dropped an attempted murder charge against Johnson.