(Stillwater, Okla.) — A convicted drug offender has been accused of abusing her 5-year-old son in a Stillwater restaurant by kicking him in the stomach and slapping him on the face and neck.
Because of her criminal record, former Stillwater resident Benita Kaye Jones, 32, of Oklahoma City, could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison if convicted of child abuse.
An arrest warrant was issued on Feb. 13 for Jones, who was not in the Payne County Jail on Tuesday morning, a sheriff’s spokesman said. She has also been known by the surname of Harris, court records show.
The alleged abuse was reported about 3 p.m. on Dec. 6, 2014, to Stillwater Police Officer James Hansen, who was sent to Chili’s Grill and Bar after a Stillwater woman reported “witnessing a child being kicked by an adult while inside the restaurant,” Detective Mary Jurczewsky wrote in an affidavit.
The reporting party, who appeared to have been crying, met the officer in the parking lot and said “what she had witnessed made her very upset,” according to the affidavit by the Stillwater police detective.
She said that she and a friend were eating in the restaurant when a couple came in with a boy, who said something about what was on the television and was kicked in the stomach by the woman, the affidavit alleged.
When the boy fell to the ground, the man grabbed his arm and began yelling at him until the boy began crying, the affidavit alleged.
She said the man displayed “aggressive behavior” from the moment she saw the couple come into the restaurant with the child, the affidavit said.
A Perkins woman said she was sitting in a booth with her daughter in the bar area when the couple came into the restaurant with the child, the affidavit said.
She said after the man originally sat at the bar and began watching a game, the child appeared to be confused as to why he couldn’t sit at the bar with the man, the affidavit said.
“The child started ‘having a fit’ and the man chased the child to the back wall, which is located on the north portion of the restaurant,” the Perkins woman told the officer, according to the affidavit.
She said the man began screaming at the child, who appeared frightened, the affidavit said.
She said the woman appeared upset, but the man went back to the bar area where he complained about needing a place to sit – getting louder and louder about seating and the child, the affidavit said.
When the child got into the booth and wanted his coat off, the woman swatted the child with an open hand on the right side of his face or neck area several times and cursed, the affidavit alleged.
The Perkins woman pointed out the couple with the child to the officer, who was able to identify the woman as Benita Jones, but unable to verify the name of the man, who he believed “was being deceitful to hide his true identity,” the affidavit alleged.
“Benita originally stated she never touched her son in any inappropriate way,” the affidavit said.
“When asked about kicking him, she changed her statement and stated she might have kicked him, but she was only ‘playing with him,’” the affidavit alleged.
The Perkins woman and the Stillwater woman told the officer they “believed it was more abuse than any other type of action,” the affidavit said.
According to court records, Jones had been placed on five years’ probation in 2009 for drug possession in Pottawatomie County in 2007.
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