By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Toddlers death results in murder charge
Johnson Kevin
Kevin Johnson - photo by Photo courtesy of ECSO

Effingham County Sheriff’s investigators have made an arrest in connection with the death of a 2-year-old child.

Kevin Johnson, 27, of Rincon, has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of Melanie Haynes. Johnson also has been charged with cruelty to children in the first degree.

Johnson was taken into custody late Friday night at the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office after autopsy results revealed Haynes died from multiple blunt force injuries, according to ECSO spokesman Detective David Ehsanipoor. Investigators also collected items from the Aspen Drive home.

Johnson was babysitting at the time while the child’s mother, Johnson’s girlfriend, was at work, detectives learned. The child’s father, a soldier deployed to Iraq, has since returned to Effingham County.

“This crime is particularly heinous,” said Effingham Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie, “especially since it was conducted against a child.”

On Tuesday, deputies were summoned to an Aspen Drive home on a report of a child unresponsive and not breathing. The child died the following day at Memorial University Medical Center.

Johnson is currently being held in the Effingham County Jail. His case has been bound over to Effingham County Superior Court, and the investigation is ongoing, Ehsanipoor said.