Mom’s New Convicted Murderer and PCP Fiend BF Boils Little Boy Alive

Mom’s New Convicted Murderer and PCP Fiend BF Boils Little Boy Alive

Jabraylon Quintes Bables was born on July 3rd, 2009, to parents Byron Bables and Jasmine Thompson of Dallas, Texas. Jasmine was originally from Arkansas and was about 19 when Jabraylon was born, while Byron was about 37. Jabraylon already had an older brother who was about a year and a half older than him, as well as many extended family members. Everyone called Jabraylon “Bam Bam” or “Bamster,” and he was known for being bright and talkative. Jabraylon was an adorable little boy with black hair, dark brown eyes, and a big smile. Unfortunately, little Jabraylon was born into a complicated family life. His father, Byron, went to prison for felony forgery shortly after Jabraylon was born.

While Byron was in jail, Jabraylon’s mother, Jasmine, wasted no time finding a new boyfriend. She started dating a man named Carlnelus Delaney Simmons, age 37. Carlnelus was a man with a violent past, having already been convicted of homicide in 1994. He had killed another man during a fight outside of a South Dallas bar and was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the homicide, as well as drug charges. He was released in late 2007, but it didn’t take long for him to get into trouble again. Two years after leaving jail, Carlnelus was arrested by the Dallas police on even more drug charges after he told them he was selling vials of PCP for $15 each.

After serving his jail time, Jabraylon’s father, Byron, was released from prison on parole in September of 2010. He spent as much time as he could with his one-year-old son after his release, but Jabraylon and his older brother lived with Jasmine and her new boyfriend, Carlnelus. Carlnelus’s apartment was a known drug house, but that didn’t seem to deter Jasmine from bringing her two young children into his vicinity.

By November of 2010, she was living with Carlnelus in a new apartment in the same complex at 8100 Skillman Street in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas. Jasmine knew that Carlnelus was a convicted murderer, but she brushed that off. She never pressed him for details about his homicide conviction and said, “That was way before he knew me.” Jasmine definitely knew that Carlnelus was a drug dealer but didn’t seem to think that made him a danger to her two sons. She frequently left the boys with Carlnelus while she went to work, said he treated the boys like they were his own, and that she didn’t have money to hire somebody else to babysit them.

On November 4th, 2010, when Jabraylon was 16 months old and his brother was nearly 3 years old, their mother went to the hospital to seek treatment for a UTI. She left Carlnelus in charge of babysitting the two boys. At 11:49 p.m. that evening, Carlnelus called 911 to report that Jabraylon had been burned while he was cooking in the kitchen. In the 911 call, Carlnelus says that he was heating up water on the stove and didn’t realize that his baby son, Jabraylon, was behind him. Carlnelus said that when he turned around, all the water spilled on him. He said, “The water’s so hot it hit him, and all his skin is coming off.”

Sometime during the 911 call, Jasmine returned home with the help of friends. She tried to administer care for Jabraylon while Carlnelus relayed instructions from the 911 operator. Paramedics with Dallas Fire-Rescue arrived and rushed Jabraylon to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where it was found that he had third-degree burns on about 30% of his body. There were burns on both of his legs and butt, as well as on his right hand and wrist. He also had bruises on the left side of his face.

Dallas police were called to investigate. Officer Alyssa Wattis, Officer Ronald Carroll, and Officer Rink arrived at the hospital at 12:10 a.m. and found Jasmine in the emergency room with Jabraylon. While they were in the hospital, Carlnelus told responding officers that he was standing in the kitchen holding a pot of boiling water when Jabraylon came running up to him. He told the officers that he dropped the hot water on the floor and heard the boy begin to scream. He said that he picked up the child and put him on a bed; when he realized that the toddler’s skin was falling off, he called 911 for help.

Jasmine told the officers that she wasn’t home at the time of the injuries, but that Carlnelus had called her to say that Jabraylon had been burned. She stated to the officers that when she left home herself that evening, Jabraylon was uninjured. Carlnelus confirmed that the only other person in the apartment during the incident was Jabraylon’s older brother. Doctors in the burn unit explained the extent of Jabraylon’s injuries to the investigating officers, which were at least second-degree partial-thickness burns on his legs and second-degree burns on his hand. The police and the doctors agreed that the burn injuries did not seem consistent with Carlnelus’s story that he had simply splashed Jabraylon with water from a dropped pot.

Jasmine and Carlnelus signed consent forms for the police to search their apartment, and then Carlnelus was transported to Dallas Police Headquarters to be interviewed further by detectives. According to Jasmine, Carlnelus often cooked food for the family. When she got the call that Jabraylon had been burned, she arrived home from the hospital to find that everything was laid out in the kitchen as if Carlnelus was preparing a meal. Police photographed the scene the next morning, which showed a box of Hamburger Helper sitting out, as well as a package of pork chops sitting on the top of the refrigerator. Other photographs of the kitchen showed a towel on the floor near the stove, as well as a large pot on the stove containing a small amount of water.

In addition to the Hamburger Helper, police found a lot of other interesting items of evidence in the apartment. In a cabinet over the stove, officers found eight plastic baggies of coke. In a clear plastic bowl in the refrigerator, they also found 95 brown vials containing liquid PCP. In addition to the illegal drugs, officers also seized 27 bottles of assorted flavored vodkas, 16 bottles of other vodka, 17 cigarette lighters, three condoms, four empty cigar boxes, 43 cigars, a box of cut-up cigarettes, and a small amount of cash that was found in the cabinets. Carlnelus also had over $1,000 in his pants pocket, which the police placed in a secure property room along with the other items removed from the apartment.

After speaking to Carlnelus, the Dallas Police Child Abuse Unit arrested him the following morning, on November 5th. He was arrested on the charge of injury to a child, a first-degree felony charge. The case was being investigated by Dallas Police detectives as well as Child Protective Services. Carlnelus was held at the Dallas County Jail with bail pending.

Jabraylon’s older brother was not injured in the incident and was eventually placed in the care of his grandmother. Meanwhile, little Jabraylon remained in the Parkland Hospital burn unit. His condition was not initially released to the public, but we can assume from the extent of his horrific burn injuries that he was likely in critical condition. Jasmine was not considered a suspect in the case as she was not home at the time of the incident. She said that Carlnelus told her that a pot of scalding water had accidentally fallen over onto Jabraylon. When interviewed, she said, “The police told me that it looked like he was dipped in water. The doctors told me the same. I’m still searching for the truth.” Why she hesitated to believe the police and expert pediatric doctors who were in agreement about Jabraylon’s injuries, and instead gave the benefit of the doubt to the boyfriend who was a convicted murderer and a known drug dealer, we will probably never know.

Little Jabraylon spent five agonizing weeks in the hospital hooked up to a battery of tubes and a breathing machine. In pictures, his body looked lost under the wires, monitors, and tubes crisscrossing his body, placed there in an effort to keep the little boy alive. Doctors tried everything they could to keep the toddler from succumbing to his horrific injuries. During one surgery, doctors had to remove about 60% of his intestines because they were so badly damaged. They removed even more during a second surgery. Jabraylon’s tiny body was continuously wracked with infections during his harrowing hospital stay. He eventually suffered kidney failure, and his body swelled up so much that he was unrecognizable as cute little Bam Bam.

Tragically, despite the doctors’ best efforts, at 8:53 p.m. on Saturday, December 11th, Jabraylon passed away at the Children’s Medical Center Dallas. The injuries and infections that he endured were simply too much to overcome. He had suffered 36 days in the hospital since the burn incident before his little body finally gave out. Some trauma is just too much for the human body to bear, especially when, like Jabraylon, someone is hardly older than a baby.

[News Interview Audio] “A one-year-old boy died this weekend. Police say he was held in boiling water more than a month ago. The man accused in the baby’s death is his mother’s boyfriend, a man with a checkered past. Tonight, in an exclusive interview, Jabraylon Bables’s mother speaks to News 8 and The Dallas Morning News. Here’s Rebecca Lopez.” “For more than five weeks, one-year-old Jabraylon Bables battled for his life.” “Such a small, a small baby like that having to go through anything like that.” “His legs and hands burned so severely that his little body couldn’t fight off the infections. Bables died this weekend. His mother’s boyfriend is accused of causing his death.” “I wish he was me, landing in his spot.” “His mother says she’s still searching for answers. Her boyfriend, Carlnelus Simmons, was babysitting the child when he claims he burned him accidentally.” “Carlnelus, he called me. He told me that the baby was burned, that he had accidentally burned the baby… a pot of water fell over on him.” “But police say it was no accident. They say the one-year-old was dipped and held in boiling water. Simmons has a violent past. He was convicted of killing a man in a bar fight in 1994. He got a 15-year prison sentence for the crime.” “I walked out that day thinking that I was going to come home to him, and I didn’t.” “Leaving Jabraylon with Simmons is a decision Jasmine Thompson says she’ll regret forever.” “I came home to a burnt baby.” “The baby’s father says he’s still trying to understand how someone could hurt his son.” “I… I see a beautiful angel. I see a baby that could never be hurt by anybody. I don’t… it’s hard for me to believe in my heart that anybody would hurt my child. Beautiful and nice and just happy.” “Police have arrested Simmons and plan to charge him with the murder of this innocent child.”

Surprisingly, the Dallas County Medical Examiner ruled Jabraylon’s death a homicide. According to the police, the burns on Jabraylon’s feet, legs, butt, and hands were not consistent with the story that Carlnelus had told them. It looked as if the little boy had been dipped into the pot of boiling water and held there, rather than the accidental spill that Carlnelus claimed had happened. Dallas Police Sergeant Brenda Nichols, supervisor of the Child Abuse Unit, said, “It’s a horrible case. It’s heartbreaking for everybody involved.” Carlnelus, meanwhile, was still in jail for the pending injury to a child charge and was also being held on two felony drug delivery charges. His bail totaled $80,000.

Jabraylon’s mother gave a phone interview the following Monday from the funeral home where she was making arrangements to bury her son. During the interview, Jasmine still sounded supportive of Carlnelus, calling him a good person. She said, “It would hurt me so much if it was intentional because I gave my trust to this man. Like I said, God hasn’t put anything in my heart to say, ‘Jazz, he did it on purpose.'” However, other family members were less naive. Jabraylon’s aunt, Veronica, said in an interview, “From the injuries on the baby, I think he did it intentionally. I feel like he tortured him.” Jabraylon’s father, Byron, said, “It hurts for me to believe in my heart that anybody would hurt my child. Right now, I just want to bury my son and find out what happened.”

At his trial, Carlnelus pled guilty to his drug charges, but not guilty to the charge of injury to a child. However, on May 4th, 2012, a jury found Carlnelus guilty of the first-degree felony charge of injury to a child with significant bodily injury. He was given the maximum sentence of 99 years in prison, plus five years for each of his two pending drug charges. It’s unclear why his charges weren’t upgraded to homicide, which is what the medical examiner had determined to be the manner of death for Jabraylon. The prosecution may have simply decided it would be too difficult to prove that Carlnelus intentionally killed Jabraylon, while getting a conviction for injury to a child would be a more definite outcome that still carried a heavy sentence.

The following year, in June of 2013, Carlnelus filed an appeal contesting his sentence. From the court of appeals opinion documents, we finally get a full picture of Jabraylon’s injuries. When he was admitted to the hospital, Jabraylon had burns on his legs all the way up to his waist, with more serious burns below the knee. He had burns on the back of both thighs, around his groin, on his right butt, the bottom of both his feet, and on his right hand. He also had a small burn around part of his waist. He had no burns on his head, face, or shoulders, but there were bruises on his left cheek and around his left ear. Disturbingly, it appeared as if the burns were already hours old by the time Jabraylon arrived at the hospital. This last detail suddenly puts into perspective the fact that Carlnelus had called 911 at 11:49 p.m., nearly midnight. It’s not exactly a time when you would expect someone to be making Hamburger Helper and pork chops to feed a couple of toddlers.

Three doctors who treated Jabraylon in the hospital testified for the state. Two of these doctors were board-certified in child abuse pediatric medicine. All three doctors testified the nature of the burns indicated that Jabraylon had been immersed in a hot liquid, and the burns were not accidental. In the doctors’ opinion, it looked as if Jabraylon had been immersed in the hot liquid while wearing a diaper, which leaked a little, causing the burns on his right butt. In a heartbreaking detail, the doctors also agreed that from the burn patterns, it appeared as if the little boy had folded himself into a fetal position to try to protect himself from the scalding liquid.

The medical examiner who ultimately performed the autopsy on Jabraylon agreed with the three doctors’ assessment of the toddler’s injuries. However, a pediatrician who testified for the defense after reviewing case documents said the burns appeared to be accidental and were caused by splattering water.

In the appeal, Carlnelus’s defense argued that since there was evidence that he was making a meal, and in his attempts to help the child after the boiling water incident, no rational jury could have found that he intentionally hurt Jabraylon. They also argued that Carlnelus simply acted on an involuntary physical reflex when he was startled by the little boy coming up behind him in the kitchen.

The appeal decision pointed out that at no time during Carlnelus’s 911 call did he explain how the boiling water ended up in contact with Jabraylon. Rather, in the call, he simply said that he was boiling water, he did not see the child behind him, and somehow the child was burned so badly that his skin started peeling off. The appeals court obviously didn’t find Carlnelus’s story any more credible than the original jury did, because they affirmed the trial court’s decision and denied the appeal. Carlnelus is currently in prison with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at the Jim Ferguson Unit in Midway, Texas. Carlnelus will be eligible for parole in 2040.

A wake for Jabraylon Bables was scheduled at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 16th, at Golden Gate Funeral Home, with his funeral the next day. We were unable to find any other information on any other memorials or vigils held to remember the little boy. Jabraylon was buried with a simple granite headstone which reads: “Jabraylon Quintes Bables, July 3rd, 2009 to December 11th, 2010. There are no tears in heaven.” Running along the bottom is an etching of a train with a teddy bear.

Earlier this year, Jabraylon’s family visited his grave to celebrate what would have been his 15th birthday. They cleaned his gravestone and decorated it with flowers and balloons to remember their Bam Bam. Little Jabraylon was callously killed by being immersed in boiling water before he was even a year and a half old. Because he was so little when he died, we don’t know much about what his personality was going to be like if he’d been allowed to grow out of his toddler years. He hadn’t even reached his terrible twos before his life was cut short in such an agonizing way. He never had a first day of kindergarten, never lost his first tooth, never got to ride the school bus. So many milestones and experiences were denied to this little boy for no reason. Let us hope that by telling his story, Jabraylon’s memory can live on for many, many more years to come.