BALTIMORE — New charging documents reveal grisly details on how a mother allegedly murdered her two children and left their bodies to decay inside a Baltimore apartment.
On Tuesday afternoon, a maintenance man at a Coventry Road apartment complex called 911 after discovering 8-year-old Davin Thomas Jr. face down inside a sleeping bag in the living room and his 6-year-old sister, Da'Neria Thomas, unclothed and unresponsive inside a bathtub.
The maintenance man told police he'd been sent to the apartment by his manager to check on a foul odor.
Paramedics were first to arrive and pronounced the children dead, noting that their bodies were in a state of decomposition.
Detectives write that Da'Neria had a "clothing object wrapped around her neck."
It wasn't until a forensic examiner got on scene, when Davin was found to have a large knife lodged in his chest with a large plastic trash bag wrapped around his head and face.
Paperwork and an ID badge left at the apartment led investigators to the kids mother, 28-year-old Jamerria Hall, as a potential suspect.
Witnesses told police they last saw Hall outside with her children on August 19.
Later that night, one neighbor recalled hearing a little girl inside the home screaming, "Mommy No!"
Hall's mother told investigators she'd last spoken with her daughter over the phone on August 23.
She apparently told her mother that she went to the hospital and left the kids with their father.
That turned out to be untrue, because the dad told detectives the children weren't with him.
He reported last seeing Hall on August 24, screaming and walking aimlessly around North Avenue and Bloomingdale Road.
A day later, detectives received a lead that Hall was in an Uber headed towards Baltimore County.
Members of the Regional Auto Theft Task Force were summoned to the area of Philadelphia Road and Rossville Boulevard, where they were able to intercept the Uber.
Hall was taken in for an interview during which time she confessed to the killings. She was formally charged later the same night and remains in custody.
The tragic incident wasn't the first time Hall was investigated for putting her children in danger.
According to 2018 charging documents, Hall set her mom's apartment on fire while the children were asleep inside.
After that, she and her children went missing before they were found at an area hospital.
Hall spent a year in jail for arson, but ended up regaining custody of the children when the father didn’t show up for a 2019 custody hearing.
It's unclear if Child Protective Services ever took any action.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said that would be part of his department's investigation into the case.
