SLIDELL – After the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office made a ruling on the manner of death in this case, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Investigators upgraded the charges on the parents to second degree murder.
The parents of the three-month-old baby were arrested back in April, after the newborn baby boy was found dead.
According to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Department, 28-year-old Kevin Scott and 27-year-old Samantha Hotard were originally charged with second degree cruelty to juveniles and cruelty to juveniles.
The baby was found unresponsive in a Slidell-area home on April 8 and pronounced dead at a hospital.
Doctors determined the baby had suffered a “non-accidental fracture to the right arm,” according to the STPSO.
With the ruling from the coroner, both Scott and Hotard’s charges have been upgraded.
