‘ Baby Jane Doe’ mom guilty on 5 counts
ALBANY — The mother of a toddler known as “Baby Jane Doe” during a decades-long investigation of the child’s death has been found guilty on four of five charges related to the crime.
Verdicts on the charges were reached in the trial of Evelyn Odom Wednesday, August 27. The woman faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, authorities said.
Odom was found guilty of felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children, conspiracy to commit a crime and concealing the death of another. She was found not guilty of aggravated battery.
The jury in the case deliberated only hours after officially starting the process around 9:45 a.m. August 27. Closing arguments concluded the previous afternoon and the jury was charged at that time with deliberations scheduled for the following morning.
Odom was accused of killing her 5year-old daughter in Dougherty County in 1988 and dumping her body in a rural section of Ware County more than 100 miles away.
Prosecutors said Kenyatta Odom died from untreated injuries she received from a scalding bath. A timber worker discovered her body encased in concrete inside a TV cabinet at an illegal dump site in Ware County in December of 1988.
Current Ware County Sheriff Carl James was an investigator with the WCSO at the time and testified in the trial’s opening days last month.
After the jury was dismissed, members of the Georgia Bureau of Investiation were seen hugging, and some were emotional.
They told WALB and the Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards about what it felt like to reach a verdict in this case, which was about 37 years in the making.
“We’re very pleased with the decision by the jury. We believe that the GBI, with their preparation and all the hard work that went into bringing this information forward, has brought a just result that was long overdue. And with the additional preparation by this office and prosecutor Tracy Mullis, we were able to bring the information to the jury that was needed for them to make the right decision,” said DA Edwards.
Jason Seacrist, special agent in charge of the GBI Region 4 office in Douglas, said this verdict comes just before what would have been another milestone in Kenyatta’s life.
“I would venture thousands of hours spent trying to find not only the identity of Kenyatta ‘Keke’ Odom, but also the offenders. And today, we not only found them, but they were also held accountable. Most ironic is that tomorrow would have been Keke’s 42nd birthday. So the fact that the guilty verdict on her own mother today — for causing her death — it brings a moment for all of us,”he said.
Evelyn Odom’s defense team declined to comment about the verdict at this time. The state expects them to appeal. Her family asked for time to process the verdict.
The state has yet to schedule a sentencing date.
Bailiffs took boxes of evidence to the deliberation room this morning before deliberations officially started around 9:45 a.m.
In the jury deliberations, requested to review parts of the GBI interviews with co-defendant Uylster Sanders, who pleaded guilty to two charges connected to the case before the Odom trial started. Sanders also testified for the prosecution.
