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Police arrest Atlanta parents in death of infant found with cocaine in system

Police said the two were charged with felony murder in connection to the infant's 2021 death.

ATLANTA — Two Atlanta parents are in jail after an infant died with cocaine in their system in 2021, police said.

Robert Williams and Makaylee Nevils were arrested on July 13 and denied bond; according to court documents, they are charged with second-degree child cruelty and second-degree murder. 

Officers said they went to 3491 Faiburn Pl. on September 20, 2021, about an infant that was unresponsive. When they got there, they found the baby; he "was not alert, conscious or breathing," according to the department. 

Arrest warrants for the parents mention the child was 2 months old and a toxicology report showed the baby had both cocaine and benzoylecgonine in his system when he died.

Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Makaylee Nevils (left) and Robert Williams (right)

In the warrant investigators describe being told the baby was given a bottle before going to bed, the parents fell asleep around 9 a.m. and woke up two hours later to find the baby lying face down and not breathing.

The infant was taken to the Hugh Spalding Hospital, where they later pronounced him dead.

At that time there were no signs of foul play visible on the child according to the warrants.

In the court records, Nevils is described as "having an illegal drug addiction," and testing positive for heroin and cocaine when she gave birth to the child. She is described as telling investigators she does not breastfeed and that the child was always given a bottle.

Due to the child and mother having illegal drugs in their system at the time of birth, DFACS opened an investigation that is mentioned in the warrants. As part of that investigation, drug testing was to be required for the parents to take the child home.

"The first drug screening was scheduled for August of 2021. They did not show," the warrant reads. The child died the next month.

Homicide investigators said they worked with the Fulton County Medical Examiner in their investigation, who later revealed the baby had cocaine in his system when he died. 

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