Police say a 6-year-old boy’s fall from a two-story window in early April has now landed his mother in jail on a felony child neglect charge.
According to investigators, 26-year-old Nashville resident Aaliyah Smythia is charged with aggravated child neglect after her son was hospitalized with a broken arm and cuts from the fall. The boy’s injuries set off a police investigation when he was brought in for treatment, and Smythia is currently listed as in custody.
Officers were first alerted when the child arrived at Skyline Medical Center, where staff reported that the boy had fallen from a two-story window and suffered a broken arm and lacerations, according to WSMV. Witness accounts at the scene, along with hospital records, led detectives to canvas nearby apartment complexes as they tried to pinpoint exactly where and how the fall happened.
Booking records
Davidson County Sheriff’s Office booking logs list Smythia as in custody, with an admitted date in late May, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. The online roster functions as the agency’s live public record of recent arrests.
What the affidavit says
In the arrest affidavit, officers note that the 6-year-old told them his mother “was not at home and out doing "grown-up things,"” at the time of the fall. Smythia, by contrast, told detectives she had been asleep and did not hear her son enter or fall from the window, according to the report.
The affidavit also states that Smythia admitted she leaves the window open and removes the screen because of air-conditioning problems in the apartment. Witnesses told police they saw her at a different apartment complex when the child was found on the ground, WSMV reports.
How Tennessee law treats the charge
Under Tennessee law, aggravated child neglect covers situations where neglect “results in serious bodily injury” to a child. State courts have found that fractures and other major injuries can meet that standard, which in turn guides prosecutors when they weigh felony charges in cases where a child’s injuries fit the statute, as outlined in Justia Tennessee court rulings.
Window falls and child safety
Falls from windows and balconies remain a recurring and often preventable danger for young children. Metro public-health reviews have repeatedly pointed to unsafe housing conditions and lapses in supervision as common factors in these incidents.
Nashville’s public-health pages list the 2023 Child Death Review among recent reports that dig into those patterns and potential prevention steps, underscoring the risks posed by unsecured windows in multi-story housing and the high stakes when something goes wrong.
