This EVIL Woman Asked to Foster Her- The Story of Laila Daniel

This EVIL Woman Asked to Foster Her- The Story of Laila Daniel

The little girl went into the doctor’s office with a broken leg. This wasn’t a normal break, though; something was off. It looked like the injury may have been intentional. The doctor called Social Services to report his concerns about the little girl, yet nothing was done. After all, this little girl’s caregiver was a very well-known member of the community, so there’s no way anything bad could be going on in her house.

So, the case I have for you today is another one that was suggested by one of you. This little girl died in her foster home, where she was supposed to be getting taken care of better than her original home, and her foster family seemed like perfect people, so nobody would have suspected what was really going on behind closed doors. This is the story of Laila Daniel.

Laila Marie Daniel was born on July 18th, 2013, in Atlanta, Georgia, to her mother Tessa Clendening and her father Anthony Daniel. She also had two siblings: an older sister named Millie and a younger sister named Cara-Lee. Laila also had a little sister whose name was Mary, who was born after Laila’s death. Laila loved everybody and had a big loving smile, and she would always let you know what a big girl she was. Her favorite foods were hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and strawberries and cream oatmeal. She loved playing with her little toy kitchen and watching the singing puppets on Yo Gabba Gabba.

For the first two years of Laila’s life, her and her sister Millie lived with their mother, other family members, family friends, and foster homes. The girls’ mother and father had been in and out of jail most of their short lives, and by this point, Laila, being so little and so confused about what was going on and where her home really was, started to act out with lots of aggression. She would fight with her sister, pull her sister’s hair, and sometimes throw herself to the ground, as well as pull her own hair. Little Laila was also afraid of sudden movements, and she hardly even spoke.

So while Laila and her sister were living with their mother Tessa, the state was involved from early on. Caseworkers from the Department of Family and Children Services (or DCFS) had responded to the home a number of times due to concerns about the care and well-being of Laila and her older sister Millie. After one particular case was opened in 2014, Tessa and her family moved out of state to North Carolina and didn’t leave a forwarding address for DCFS, so they closed the case. After a separate complaint, a DCFS caseworker would go to the house to check on the girls, but nobody answered the door. Later, Tessa had yelled at the caseworker over the phone. The case was then closed, but Tessa would say that she never tried to dodge DCFS; they just didn’t make a big enough effort.

In January of 2015, Laila’s mother Tessa was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The Spalding County Sheriff’s Office had been listening to a wiretap of a drug dealer’s cell phone when Tessa had called said phone. She spent 3 months in jail before being released on bond. Tessa would say that it was a big mix-up and she was never intending on buying or distributing drugs. Then, in April of 2015, DCFS would take the girls into state custody. They became foster children.

Shortly after Laila and Millie entered foster care, they were at the Henry County Juvenile Court when a law intern introduced herself. The law intern actually recognized the girls’ mother’s name. She realized that she had actually been in foster care with the girls’ mother years ago. This intern’s name was Jennifer Rosenbaum.

Jennifer Rosenbaum, who was 27 at the time, had been a foster child herself. Her family had sometimes been homeless, living on the street in a tent or out of a car at truck stops. The children were sometimes beaten, and DCFS removed them in 1997 and placed them in foster care when Jennifer was nine. When Jennifer was younger and in foster care, she often acted out, but friends and family said that she had gotten her act together since then, and all she wanted to do now was be a good person and help children. So this seemed like a blessing to Tessa. A woman that she had known a long time ago had reached out to her to take care of her girls until she could get her life back on track. She figured she wouldn’t have reached out on her own if she had anything other than good intentions.

So on July 24th, 2015, Laila and her sister moved in with Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum. DCFS had run a home evaluation as well as background checks on the couple, and everything had come back fine. And Jennifer, their new foster mom, seemed infused with positive energy and ambition. She was an Emory law student and an intern for the state legislature and juvenile court. The girls shared a bunk bed at their new home that was on a quiet street in McDonough, Georgia. DCFS reported positive changes and said that Laila was coming a long way. During a visit on September 2nd, 2015, a caseworker named Samantha White noted that Laila could now count to five, and she recognized the amounts when counting on her fingers. She wrote down that Laila appeared to be happy in the home, Millie as well.

But it wasn’t very long after the girls had moved in with the Rosenbaums that their biological mother Tessa began to worry. She thought that something might be wrong. Jennifer would tell Tessa that Laila was often sick and required numerous doctor’s visits. Jennifer would also cancel Tessa’s plans to come see Laila. Jennifer would also send the girls’ mom many pictures of Millie, but there weren’t as many of her younger daughter, Laila.

Then there was an incident that had occurred before the girls had started living with the Rosenbaums. At the time, they were living with their foster mom, who was Patricia Lambert, and they would occasionally visit the Rosenbaums. After one of these visits, Patricia said she had noticed that Laila had some small injuries, and she had taken her to the Henry County DCFS office so that they could examine the injuries. The caseworker, Samantha White, met with the girls to take additional photos and report back. She reported back that the injuries were mostly gone, and so no case was ever opened.

On October 19th, 2015, Jennifer sent a text message to the caseworker, Samantha White, saying that Laila had broken her leg during her gymnastics class on October 16th. In the day prior to the gymnastics injury, Laila had been at her grandmother’s house and had injured that same leg by falling into a small hole. Jennifer told Samantha that Laila had then reinjured it at gymnastics. Jennifer said she took her to Urgent Care from there, but she actually didn’t take her to Urgent Care until four days after she had actually broken her leg. Jennifer also texted Samantha and said, “She’s doing fine. By her attitude, you would never know anything was wrong. She’s laughing, playing, singing, and hasn’t cried once, not even when it happened.” Which I seriously doubt. She broke her leg, and she didn’t cry? She’s two. I really, really doubt that. She’s either the toughest two-year-old in the world, or Jennifer’s a liar—you pick.

Following this, the caseworker did not investigate the broken leg any further, which was a direct violation of policy. Whenever a foster child suffers a serious injury, a caseworker is required to file a report and begin an investigation. The day that Laila had gone to the doctors for her broken leg, she got an X-ray done, and it showed not only that her leg was broken, she also had an injury to her arm. And the Urgent Care doctor who treated Laila said that the break to her leg was very close to the knee and would have been extremely painful. He also said this is something you don’t see very often and would require a lot of force. The doctor would later say that this injury could not have been caused by falling off of a balance beam as Jennifer was claiming it had.

There was one time when Samantha tried to check in with the girls on November 2nd, 2015, but at the time Laila was sleeping. So Samantha took a quick peek at her and said that at the time she didn’t notice any signs of abuse. And only a few weeks later, on November 17th, 2015, which was Jennifer Rosenbaum’s 27th birthday, it would also be Laila’s last day on earth.

Jennifer had called 911 that day and said that Laila had been choking on a piece of chicken. She said she had gotten the blockage out, but the little girl’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head, and her breathing was slowed. She told the dispatcher that she was trying to do CPR, but Laila kept going white. And to protect her own ass later—or so she thought—she also told the operator that she was trying to do CPR and she was worried she might have broken a rib because she didn’t know how to do it. Aren’t foster parents also supposed to be CPR certified, or am I incorrect in saying that? At the time of this incident, Joseph hadn’t been home, but he had been aware of the abuse that had been going on in the house prior. When first responders got to the scene, Laila had no pulse, and she wasn’t breathing. She was brought to a local hospital where she was declared dead.

Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum were arrested on December 4th, 2015. The arrest warrant said that Jennifer Rosenbaum had killed Laila by striking her in the abdomen so hard that it lacerated her pancreas to the point where it was in two pieces. This caused Laila serious internal bleeding. It was believed that Laila had gone into shock from the massive amounts of blood that she had lost and then later died. The warrant also noted that Laila had injuries throughout her entire body. Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum were facing 49 charges, including murder, child cruelty, and aggravated assault. Both pled not guilty and were released on bond.

During her autopsy, it was noted that Laila had loop-shaped bruises all over her body like she had been hit with a belt. She also had marks consistent with being punched by somebody’s fist. Laila also had burns on her stomach that had started to heal, and she also had bruises to her inner thighs and genitals, and one of her ears had half of the skin missing from it. On the day that Laila had passed, paramedics had noticed all the bruises on her body. They had also noticed that for her age, Laila was rather thin, and this was because the Rosenbaums liked to withhold food from her.

After Laila died and the Rosenbaums were taken into custody, Millie was also removed from the home, and it was discovered that she was covered in bruises as well. She had bruising on her head, chest, abdomen, pelvis, back, arms, and legs. Millie had been instructed to tell people that she had fallen if people asked. [Music]

Laila’s injuries were being investigated as abuse. After detectives talked with Jennifer for about an hour, she starts crying, her attorney asks for a break, and the interview ends. Detective Thompson with the Henry County Police Department was part of this interview and also interviewed Laila’s sister, Millie. “She did disclose how, you know, whenever Jennifer gets mad at them, sometimes she snatches them or grabs them up by their arms, holds them up by their arms, things of that nature.”

During today’s testimony, prosecutors played part of Millie’s interview with Thompson and a second detective. Millie said Jennifer kicked her in the stomach once, spanked her, and twisted her arm. She also said when Laila died, she was upstairs while Jennifer and Laila were downstairs alone. “You hear Laila crying? Okay, was it really loud? Really soft? Was crying for a short time.” Millie also recalled another time when Jennifer allegedly squeezed Laila’s leg and Laila cried. Previous witness testimony claimed the Rosenbaums said Laila broke her leg at gymnastics, but doctors questioned that story when looking at X-rays. “Okay, all right. When you said that somebody squeezed her leg, which leg was it? Was it the same leg that she broke, or the other leg?”

After Laila’s death, DCFS reviewed how they had handled her case in its entirety, and there were several troubling signs as to how they had handled it. Time and time again, people in the child welfare system—a DCFS worker, a judge, and an assistant district attorney—had bent over backwards to help Jennifer. The caseworker and supervisor on Laila’s case said that the explanations that Jennifer had given them for Laila’s injuries had seemed plausible, and that’s why nothing further had been done about many of them. Case manager Samantha White was dismissed soon after Laila’s death, and her supervisor, Tamara Warren, as well, for violating state policy guidelines.

So Laila and her sister had spent time in three official foster homes before she had died. Nastassia Colbert says she was the first. Mrs. Colbert says she liked to teach the children sign language and had taught Laila a few words, such as “eat.” Laila loved food, and Miss Colbert believed that Laila was trying to communicate her hunger in a photo that had been taken days before she died. Now, DCFS also requires that children are to get undressed and checked for injuries every time a caseworker visits the house. Mrs. Colbert said that that never happened while the girls were living with her, and investigators said that it never happened while they were living at the Rosenbaums either.

Investigators had said that, according to DCFS, Jennifer had told them that she never bathed Laila, that was Joseph’s job. But in another report, when Jennifer was trying to explain an injury on the little girl’s head, she told the caseworker that Laila had actually hit her head on the faucet in the bathtub when she had left for a minute to grab her cell phone. The caseworker didn’t question it any further and didn’t even say anything about a two-year-old being left alone in a bathtub. And Tessa had called DCFS multiple times trying to get her children removed from the home once she started to realize that something was wrong, but DCFS did nothing. They actually told her that she was calling too much and to stop.

Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum’s trial began in July of 2019, and during opening statements, it was revealed that Jennifer and Tessa had never been friends in foster care. They lived together, sure, but they had had a falling out over a boy. So was this some sort of sick revenge on Jennifer’s part?

[Transcript of court testimony reading Facebook messages between Jennifer and Tessa]

“May 19th, 2015. And what was the message?”

“You want me to read it out? It says: ‘Hey girl, I know we haven’t seen each other or talked in a while, but I wanted to let you know I’m praying for you. I met your girls last Wednesday at juvenile court. I work with the District Attorney’s Office prosecuting juvenile offenders, and we use the same courtroom as DFCS cases. Your girls are beautiful and look so much like you. I think it was your mom who talked to me for a minute and said you were having a hard time. It just stuck with me over this past week, and so I wanted to reach out and let you know you are in my prayers.'”

“And did you respond back to her?”

“Of course, especially after Samantha White told me that she was interested in the girls.”

“I don’t know if you can read that or not. Is that your response?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Let me read that. Yes. What day did you respond back?”

“I responded back on the 20th of 2015.”

“And what was your response?”

“I said: ‘Thank you so much. God, I miss them so much. I can’t believe I put my babies through all of this when I knew what it felt like firsthand. I talked to Miss White, and she told me that you were interested in getting my girls until I can work my case plan. I think that would be amazing. It would make me feel so much more comfortable with the whole messed up situation. I’m fully ready to work towards getting them back, but if they have to be away from me for a while, I would much prefer them be with you. Thank you so much, you are literally the biggest blessing.'”

“And that was your initial contact with her in regards to getting your girls?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And why did you feel like this was a blessing?”

“Um, because I just felt like they could pay more attention to them. I felt like they had good stuff going on, like as far as stuff, you know.”

“Had you had any contact with Miss Rosenbaum the last time, to your knowledge, that you had spoken to or even seen her?”

“A long time ago.”

“A long time. How did you know what was going on with her to make you feel comfortable?”

“I just looked at all her pictures of her and Joseph and their dogs and stuff, and I don’t know. I just felt like they just look like good people, and I felt like maybe if she knew me and reached out to me, that maybe I didn’t have the best memory, but I figured that she couldn’t mean nothing bad by that. Like, I feel like she had to have good intentions if she reached out to me.”

“Did you feel like your girls would be safe with the Rosenbaums?”

“Yeah.”

A doctor who had treated Laila testified in court. He told the court about a fracture that had been found in Laila’s arm. It was found on X-rays while she was at the hospital, as well as during her autopsy. He said it had been an old injury that was in the process of healing. It was a break to the ulna bone. He referred to this type of injury as a “nightstick fracture,” because when police would carry around nightsticks and go to hit somebody with it, they would put their arms up to protect their head and their face, and then this part of their arm is where it would break. So this type of injury in a 2-year-old was pretty much unheard of. The doctor said that between the delay in treatments and the type of injuries that Laila had, they were huge red flags for child abuse. He himself had called a child protective service worker while he was working at one of the hospitals to report his concerns, but clearly nothing was done.

Sarah Crawford McKee had spoken to Jennifer a number of times during her daughter and Millie’s gymnastics practice. Laila actually wasn’t even enrolled in gymnastics; it was Millie’s gymnastics class that Jennifer had previously claimed Laila had broken her leg on the balance beam at. Sarah testified that she noticed that Laila didn’t seem to have any energy when she was there, and she would often just lay on the benches during the practice. But Jennifer would blame this behavior on the traumatic abuse that Laila had gone through at the hands of her biological mother. She said Sarah had also noticed bruises and red marks on Laila’s stomach one time when her shirt had accidentally gotten lifted up. Sarah had also made a comment at one point about how she didn’t like to give her kids candy because of how it made them act, to which Jennifer said, “Well, if my girls disobey, I make them run laps or up and down the stairs over and over.” They’re two and four years old—super inappropriate punishments.

Jurors also heard from Amanda Harold, who had adopted Laila’s sister Millie after Laila’s death. She told the court that Millie would often bring up what had happened during the time that her and her sister were at the Rosenbaums, and one of the things that she would tell her is that they would get in trouble if they ever fell asleep during a car ride and would get spankings. And then Millie took the stand. She told jurors that her and her sister Laila would get spankings if they didn’t get dressed fast enough in the morning. She also said that Jennifer would sometimes hit them with her hand and sometimes with a belt, and that Joseph would never intervene.

And then the jury heard from a woman named Ebony Taylor. Ebony Taylor was a supervisor at DCFS, and she had approved the girls going to the Rosenbaum’s home, but apparently, she didn’t do her research herself; she just depended on what her workers brought to her. Because it was later found out that the Rosenbaums had never attended the required classes to become foster parents. Also, her staff did not screen Jennifer Rosenbaum’s maiden name, which would have automatically ruled her out from being a foster parent since she herself had been in the foster system in the past. She told the court that the Rosenbaums should never have been foster parents, but she’s the supervisor, so it’s her job to do the double-checking, right? That is a supervisor’s job, correct.

Jordan Hall, a neighbor of the Rosenbaums, also spoke in court, and she told them about a conversation she had had with Jennifer shortly before she fostered the girls. Jennifer had told this woman, Jordan, that the girls’ mother was a meth addict and that karma was a bitch because now she was going to be taking care of those “meth babies.” Jordan told her she should not be talking about the children like that. And what does she mean by “karma’s a bitch because now I’m taking care of them”? Did she have this planned from day one, that she wanted some kind of revenge on Tessa for stealing a boy from her when they were teenagers? Because that’s petty shit.

Now, Peggy Banks was Laila and Millie’s grandmother. She was the one point of stability that the girls had in their life. At different times, she had kept one or both of them in her home. She tried to keep the girls long-term, but the senior community that she lived in didn’t allow children, so that’s when Peggy ended up giving up custody of the girls and they had to enter the foster care system. Peggy said she was initially excited about the Rosenbaums being foster parents for Millie and Laila. She thought they were nice people, but soon they started canceling a lot of her visits with her granddaughters, and Peggy had become concerned after she had noticed bruises on both Laila and Millie. After that, she spoke with the homeowners association at her senior living community and she asked them for permission to take the girls. They told her that she could as long as it was for no more than two years, but she was never able to speak to DCFS about this before Laila’s death.

And Tessa Daniel got to speak her mind in court before Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum were sentenced. She said, “I want to say that they were given an opportunity to have a precious baby in their life, and instead they took her life.” She acknowledged that she had had some problems in the past, but she was not a habitual drug user. Most of all, she says she loves her kids; they were the center of her world, they helped her get through her day, and above all else, she said they were properly fed, clothed, and loved at all times. Tessa also said that over the years she had blamed herself for Laila’s death. Had it not been for her actions, her daughters would not have been in the Rosenbaum’s home, but she says recently she has started to not blame herself anymore.

There were so many others who gave statements in court as well, including Laila’s aunt. She said, “This has been weighing on our lives for four years now. From now on, we refer to things in our lives as ‘before Laila died’ and ‘after Laila died’.” Her aunt also said, “You not only killed Laila and traumatized her sister, but you broke the hearts of everyone who ever knew her.”

Jennifer and Joseph’s attorney would try to write off many of Laila’s injuries as either just general bumps and bruises of childhood, or he said that some of them had occurred before the girls were in the Rosenbaum’s home. Which makes no sense because they’d been there for what, like six or seven months at that point? What injury lasts that long, you bozo? Jennifer’s sister also spoke out, saying that Jennifer and her husband wanted to adopt the girls, so why would she have done something so awful to them?

On August 1st, 2019, jurors convicted Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum. The couple faced a 49-count indictment. They each ended up being acquitted on some charges but were charged with the more serious ones. Jennifer Rosenbaum was found guilty of felony murder. Joseph Rosenbaum was convicted of second-degree murder. Both of them were seen crying as the verdict was read. During sentencing, Jennifer received 40 years in prison, and Joseph, who keep in mind was an ex-correctional officer, received 30 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation.

Tessa, Laila’s biological mother, is now living with an aunt and uncle of hers in Clayton County, and she has a job answering phones for their business. Tessa also says she is no longer doing drugs and has been clean for a while. She also gave birth to another little girl who she says looks just like Laila. Tessa also says that she sees Millie twice a week during supervised visits with her, and one time Millie asked her if they had swimming pools in heaven for Laila.

Laila’s funeral services were held on November 23rd, 2015, in the chapel of Haisten Funeral Home. Laila was then buried at Berea Cemetery in Hampton, and DCFS ended up paying for her burial, as they should have. A candlelit vigil was also held in remembrance of Laila Marie Daniel on February 15th, 2016, at the Hampton train depot. Laila’s aunt, Kim Smith, would say, “We are just trying to keep Laila and her story in everyone’s heart.”

Well, thank you for listening to all of Laila’s story today. This poor little girl never lived a happy life. She was confused and scared as she was being bounced from place to place all of her two years on this earth. Now, I’m sure Laila might have been a more difficult toddler than most, but foster parents are supposed to have the knowledge and understanding that a lot of foster children have issues when they come into their home because of what they’ve been through. And Jennifer even knew how it was; she was in foster care herself. Yet she still did these awful things to Laila. And Jennifer acted like she was some kind of amazing person, only to have some sort of hatred towards Tessa—enough to make her want to take it out on her two innocent daughters. She’s evil.