Parents Of Infant Found Dead Charged With Capital Murder 7 Months After His Death, Authorities Say

A Mississippi couple each faces a capital murder charge seven months after their baby son died while in their care, authorities said.

On Dec. 2, police arrested Kevin Nicholas Bruce and Jana Ray Bruceat their Panola County home in connection with the death of 7-month-old Kevin Nicholas Bruce, Jr. last April, WIAT reported.

Barbara Wells defended her grandson and his wife, saying she doesn’t believe her great-grandson’s death was the result of homicide.

“They did not do nothin’ to that baby. I don’t care what nobody says. I knew them both,” she told WIAT.

Wells recalled in the interview with the station that the day the baby died, Kevin and Jana Bruce “had fed him and put him to bed and Kevin went to check on him a few minutes later, ‘cause he held him a lot and everything, and he went to check on him and he was dead.”

She noted that while the infant was “filled out,” he “was longer and less weight than most babies seven months.”

“He just…something was wrong with him,” she added.

The Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services declined to comment about the case to WIAT.