3/31/14 - A hearing for a former Fowlerville woman charged in Florida with the death of her infant daughter has been delayed more than a month. 23-year-old Kylee Jean Copeland had been set for a pre-trial hearing last week in Polk County Circuit Court on a manslaughter charge for the death of her 3-month-old daughter Nataley Jade Agee. But that was adjourned until May 6th. The girl was found dead in a crib at her home in Lakeland, Florida in September, 2011. An autopsy determined the cause of the death was blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with child abuse. The examiner also determined that the child had been dead for at least eight hours, which was inconsistent with Copelandâs initial story that she fed her daughter at 4am that morning and then put her back in the crib. She said her three-year-old son woke her up at 9am after finding his sister unresponsive. Copeland then changed her story and told authorities that she dropped her baby in the living room and her head struck the couch, then she bounced to the floor. She reportedly said she lied because she didnât want to lose her other children or go to jail. This is not the first incident of child neglect Copeland has been involved in. She and Trevor Agee, the father of her three children, were pulled over by a Michigan State Police trooper in August of 2008 on I-96 near Fowlerville. The trooper saw a baby boy sitting sideways in a car seat with duct tape over his mouth, which Copeland and Agee admitted to placing there to hold his pacifier in place. Authorities declined to press criminal charges and shortly afterwards, the pair moved to Florida to live with Agee's mother. Copeland then made headlines in February 2009 when she disappeared without warning, leaving her 6 month old son in the care of relatives. Although she turned up a day later, a similar situation was reported again in September of that year. (JK)
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