22-year-old James Lee Saltmarshall was a young father whose life, while it had normal ups and downs, was pretty average. Until April 20th, when he woke up beside his 8-month-old daughter in a motel in Inkster and discovered she wasn’t breathing. Suddenly everything changed. And that was only the beginning.
He performed CPS on Janiyah Saltmarshall until emergency responders arrived, and then she was rushed to the hospital. There, the situation sent from bad to worse. Janiyah was eventually revived and transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. There she spent several days in critical condition, before passing away.
But Saltmarshall wasn’t told of his daughter’s death until the charges against him were read in open court. One can hardly envision a more terrible way to discover that your daughter has died, than to be arrested and charged with murder, and find out that the person you are alleged to have killed is your own child. A child you thought was alive.
Saltmarshall was crushed. He wept uncontrollably in court, and kept telling the judge over and over that he needed to call his mom. But let’s back up a moment. Why was he being accused of murdering his child? And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the prosecutor claimed that he had raped his baby daughter before she died.
According to a strange story, assembled out of thin air by doctors and Inkster police officers, Janiyah’s skull was fractured and she had tearing around her anus consistent with sexual abuse. Police immediately assumed that Saltmarshall was the guilty party, and arrested him. He was charged with First Degree Murder and First Degree Child Abuse.
Inexplicably, several months after the charges were brought, the Wayne County Medical Examiner announced that these conclusions were incorrect. In fact, it came to light that there had been no evidence of sexual abuse to begin with. No evidence of assault either. Janiyah, as it turns out, died of what the M.E. determined was “overlay.” This happens sometimes when a child and adult sleep together, and the adult’s body blocks air to the child by accident.
A statement released by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office explained the findings this way. “After an extensive investigation and based upon the … report from the Wayne County Medical Examiner, it has been determined that the cause of death of the child was asphyxia and the manner of death was determined to be an accident.”
Somehow, a young innocent father was labelled a murderer and a baby rapist, when the only thing he was guilty of was caring for his infant daughter. As if the tragedy of losing his daughter wasn’t horrific enough, he was blamed for her death and accused of sexually assaulting her as well. According to his attorney, his life has been ‘ruined’ by these false allegations, as assertion that’s hard to argue with.
We have no idea how this happened. How such enormous and preposterous mistakes could be made, or how such easily exposed lies could be told about a person. It’s beyond belief! However, it serves to reinforce what we tell our readers time and again. False allegations and wrongful charges happen all the time. The best way to fight this is to hire the best attorney available.
If you have been falsely accused of a crime against a child, whether it’s child abuse, sexual assault, neglect, or any other terrible act, contact The Kronzek Firm immediately at 866 766 5245. We have spent decades successfully defending the people of Michigan against false allegations of abuse. We can help you too.