WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — A woman has been sentenced after killing her adopted son in what a police lieutenant described as the worst case of abuse he had seen in 16 years .
Kimberly Monique Smith, 39, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury in connection with the death of her five-year-old adopted son Kendall Marquese Smith. She was sentenced to 22 and a half years to 28 years in prison.
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The boy and his 6-year-old brother were in foster care and had been placed with Kimberly Smith in August 2019. Kimberly Smith’s adoption of the two was finalized in early April 2021, months before Kendall Smith died.
At 9:47 p.m. on June 6, 2021, Winston-Salem police officers and EMS received a report of an unresponsive child on the 2300 block of Whisperwood Street in Winston-Salem.
At the scene, officers found the child, who had no pulse and was not breathing. Kendall Smith was rushed to Brenner’s Children’s Hospital, but, despite attempts to save his life, the child died.