The case of Jacsun Manson has been ongoing since New Year’s Day. At just six months old, Jacsun was last seen at the turn of the new year. Since then, the police have apprehended and extensively questioned his parents, Kiana Williams and Adam Manson. On Apr. 25, the two pleaded not guilty to a felony child abuse charge after allegedly admitting to leaving Jacsun’s body inside of a suitcase in a garbage bin.
Los Angeles police arrested Williams and Manson on Jan. 3 after finding them in a stolen U-Haul vehicle. Officer Luke Coyle identified the two in court and testified that he did not see a baby with them in the vehicle, which at the time was not being used as one of the 12 million trucks and vessels that move goods over the transportation network. Neither Williams or Manson even mentioned that they had a baby and Manson allegedly identified himself with a different last name. A woman who works at a building near where the arrest took place told authorities that she saw Jacsun alive and happy around Jan. 1.
About one and a half months before this encounter, the three had been living at an emergency family shelter in Culver City. Ariana Herrera, a housing case manager for the shelter, testified that she contacted the shelter’s program manager after seeing trash, rotten food, and drug paraphernalia in the family’s unit. When the conditions didn’t improve, she contacted the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).
Another person who would eventually be a prosecution witness, Department of Public Social Services eligibility worker Vicky Lee, also called the DCFS hotline to report suspected abuse. She did so after speaking with Manson in January when he denied having contact with Jacsun or Williams since the previous November. He also denied being Jacsun’s father, reported that Williams was in jail, and said the baby might be with her new boyfriend.
Supervising DCFS social worker Cristina Herrera testified that Williams admitted in a jailhouse interview that she didn’t know where Jacsun was and that he might be with Manson. Herrera was concerned for the boy’s safety. While an individual may face some obstacles like the average American’s $38,000 of debt, Williams had reported that the family was homeless, that she had been a daily methamphetamine user, and that Jacsun had not seen a doctor. As a result of this information and the contradicting reports regarding Jacsun’s whereabouts, Herrera helped file a missing person’s report for Jacsun on Jan. 25.
Meanwhile, Manson was once again found with a reportedly stolen U-Haul vehicle. LAPD officer Carlos Aguirre he saw Manson near the vehicle on Feb. 2. Aguirre testified that he believed Manson said he couldn’t go to jail that night because he needed to see his baby, but Aguirre didn’t list it in his police report because he wasn’t aware of the baby’s relevance at the time. Aguirre did say that there is video of the incident from his body-worn camera, a device that 66% of officers favor to record interactions with citizens.
Once both Williams and Manson were in custody, the truth about Jacsun started to unravel. Initially, Williams told police that Jacsun died in a PT Cruiser. However, after receiving a handwritten note from Manson asking her to tell the truth, Williams confessed the truth. The two woke up to find their son unresponsive while staying in a South Los Angeles motel room on New Year’s Eve. They allegedly tried to revive him but were unsuccessful.
Williams then put Jacsun’s body in a suitcase. After considering two burial sites, she and Manson drove to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw mall. Manson threw the suitcase in a tall trash bin at the shopping center. Despite attempts to retrieve the remains from the landfill where the trash was taken on Jan. 15, police have not been able to locate the body and discontinued the search on Apr. 22.
Despite the admittance of their actions and a hearing on Apr. 11 in which the judge heard the various testimonies of witnesses and detectives, both Williams and Manson pleaded not guilty to their felony charges of child abuse. Their next court appearance will be on May 22 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, but with just 1% of federal civil cases actually reaching trial in Federal courts, it’s uncertain how far this case will go in the judicial system. Currently, the two remain in jail in lieu of a $5 million bail.
