A Leesburg woman seen acting strangely and who dropped an infant on its head on a busy highway, told deputies she had been taking ecstasy and methamphetamine for three days.
Kayla Noelle Morgan, 23, first was taken to an Ocala hospital on Monday, then was booked at the Marion County Jail on charges of aggravated child abuse and resisting an officer without violence.
The infant has a fractured skull but is expected to recover, authorities said.
Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy Shelby Heckman responded to a call near County Road 315 and East State Road 40 on Monday in reference to a person running in and out of the road while holding a child and “barking like a dog” at vehicles that drove by, the arrest report states.
Heckman found several vehicles stopped on the road. A motorist told the deputy where Morgan was. She ignored the deputy’s yelling for her to stop. Morgan, who had the baby in her arms, walked in a “zig-zag” pattern through traffic and at one point hid behind vehicles in an attempt to avoid the deputy, the report states.
Morgan then began to run and dropped the infant head-first on the side of SR 40. Medical personnel had arrived and picked up the child.
Heckman and another deputy were able to handcuff Morgan after twice stunning her with a Taser. Heckman said Morgan was grunting and making strange noises. She told the deputy she believed the official was a monster attempting to get her blood. She said she did not realize she had dropped the child and thought she had set the infant down while running from “the monsters,” the report states.
Morgan was transported to Florida Hospital Ocala for observation. She told the deputy she had ingested ecstasy and methamphetamine for three days and only remembered bits and pieces of events. Once Morgan was medically cleared, she was released from the hospital and transported to the jail. She is being held on no bail.
The relationship between Morgan and the child was not revealed.
Morgan’s mother told the Star-Banner on Tuesday that the incident was “a tragedy” and said she is going to get help for her daughter.
Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118, austin.miller@starbanner.com or @almillerosb.
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