A couple has been charged with murder after their young daughter died with large amounts of ethanol in her system.
Joseph Smith told detectives that on November 16, 2024 he woke up between the hours of 4am and 5am, during this time he found the child, who has not been named, facedown in the cot not breathing. Smith said he “immediately” told his partnerr Angel Talbert to call for emergency services .
The couple then reportedly put the baby in the car and drove to the nearest hospital, with an ambulance meeting them along the way and performing lifesaving procedures on the infant until arriving at the hospital. The infant was pronounced dead at the hospital at 5:32am Law and Order reports. Investigators said Talbert corroborated Smith’s story and told authorities that their child was not sick and had zero preexisting conditions.
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It wasn’t until around 7:52am that day that police were informed about the baby’s death. Law and Crime obtained court documents reveal Braxton County Sheriff’s Department officers visited Braxton County Memorial Hospital where the child had died. The officers arrived at the scene 30 minutes later and analyzed the child, saying that her face was “discolored as if the baby had been face down.”
On April 10, police received information from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner that stated the infant’s liver tissue came back positive for ethanol “with a reading of 3.21”, which would be “fatal to an infant”, Law and Crime reports.
Four days later investigators visited the couple’s home to inform them of the results of their daughters postmortem examination. The parents reportedly responded to the news by saying that their baby was healthy and not on any type of medication. Two days later, authorities interviewed the couple again, with Talbert revealing new information, reports Mirror US.
“During the interview [Talbert] told [investigators] that after the first interview on 04/14/2025 that James Smith told her that he would take alcohol and rub [it] on the infant child’s gums and around her mouth when the infant would get irritable and fussy,” the document stated.
“A short time later James Smith stated that him and [Talbert] would both rub alcohol on the infants gums and they had done it almost everyday for a month prior to the infant death.”
Smith and Talbert, both from Gassaway, West Virginia, were taken into custody last week in West Virginia and charged with one count each of first-degree murder , second degree murder, child neglect resulting in death and conspiracy against the state, according to records, Law and Crime reports.
The parents were then arrested and brought to Central Reginoal Jail where they are being held without bond.
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