Jayla Amara Johnson, 31, and Shamika Neal, 39, were booked Aug. 17 in Columbia County on child-cruelty charges after Grovetown police said a child arrived at school with raised welts and bruising on his leg. Booking records show both were booked on charges of cruelty to children causing excessive physical or mental pain.
In a police report, the child told a DFCS caseworker and a Grovetown police sergeant that his mother, Johnson, and his stepmother, Neal, hit him Aug. 16 at a home off Newmantown Road with a "switch" and a "brown stick." An officer observed multiple raised welts and bruising on the child's thigh and calf and photographed the injuries.
Police said both women were interviewed separately at the Grovetown Police Department and admitted hitting the child. Johnson told police she struck the child six times with a switch because he had defecated on himself. Neal told police she used a wooden back scratcher to hit him twice after finding lighter fluid being poured out in the yard and because he had defecated on himself.
Officials said DFCS put a safety plan in place and placed the child with a family member.