Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Babysitter Bestie Breaks Baby’s Bones: Police

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Sara Smith, 27, faces a first-degree child cruelty charge in Georgia. The state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation said it opened a case in February when a baby girl Smith had watched suffered injuries. The baby's mother said the girl had bruises and a broken arm. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with the mother of the baby about the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Anyone with information about this investigation can contact GBI: 1-800-597-TIPS or tips can be submitted online: https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-onlineHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Samantha MullinCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

She was my friend and it's like you can't trust anybody, friends, family, strangers. A trusted babysitter arrested and charged after detectives say a baby in her care suffered a broken bone. So I text her again and I'm like, why is there bruises all over her? I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and this is crime fix. Sarah Smith is a 27-year-old mom. She babysits or at least she used to babysit. On social media, she looks like a loving mom and a woman who likes to have fun with filters. She has a lot of photos on Facebook, but recently she had a photo taken that wasn't so flattering.

Sarah Smith had a mugshot taken at the Baldwin County Jail in Georgia, where she was booked on a charge of cruelty to children in the first degree. The victim in this case, Georgia's Bureau of Investigation says it was a four-month-old baby girl. A defenseless little baby whose mother trusted Sarah Smith to watch her children. You'll hear from that mother of the children very shortly. Last February, the mother of the baby girl posted these x-rays on Facebook showing injuries, including a broken arm. The mother also shared text messages that she said she exchanged with Sarah Smith asking her about her baby's injuries. In one message, Samantha wrote to Sarah, hey, how come Jenny? has bruising on her forehead and her knee.

Smith then provided a long response about the baby being in a shopping cart at Walmart and being accidentally hit in the head with a box of cereal. And another explanation about a child tripping over the baby while the child was on the floor of her home during tummy time. Now, there were other follow-up text messages about other injuries. Samantha Mullen then posted on Facebook, Why would you hurt my baby? Jenny is the most happiest little girl on this planet. She never cries, just always smiling, talking, and sticking her little tongue out, being silly. I just knew when I picked her up that day, my baby was not acting herself. Now my Jackson and my Genesis scream, cry when I'm not in their sight for a second. My babies are traumatized. I trusted you. I trusted you. This was not their first time in your care. How could you do this to my babies, man? Anytime I watched your kids, they never had a scratch on them when they were returned to you. So why would you do this?

How could you do this? I would never understand ever. After Samantha Mullen took her baby to the doctor, the injuries were reported to law enforcement. And deputies in Baldwin County, Georgia asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist in the case. That was in February. Now it's April. And Georgia's Bureau of Investigation announced that Sarah Smith, a 20, seven-year-old mother has been charged with cruelty to children. I want to bring in Samantha Mullen.

She is the mother of this poor baby who was harmed and who Sarah Smith is charged with treating cruelly. Samantha, first of all, thank you so much for joining me. Second of all, how are you and your poor little baby girl doing right now? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for having me. we're good. My baby, she has been so tough. She's been just like the best. She's always been like the happiest baby ever. She's been able to smile, laugh and be her normal self throughout the whole process. You can tell, you know, when it was going on, she was in pain here and there. But, you know, she was still able to be herself. So it was just, you know, amazing. She was able to, you know, still laugh. And, you know, she would look like she'd want to move her arm and everything. She was just, you know, ready to be.

be out of the arm cast they had her in and everything. She was so strong. Oh, my God. I can't imagine having like a three, four month old baby. It was tough. It was tough. Like it was just like Velcro. But at the same time, like I couldn't, I couldn't take her out of it. And I couldn't, you know, like picking her up was hard. I had to make sure I wasn't hurting her. When I was picking her up, putting on her car seat, taking her out, buckling her in, getting her dress, giving her bass. You know, it was just tough. It was hard. She hated it.

She hated being wrapped up. She did not like, you know, I had to keep her arms still. She did not like that. It's just she hated it. Has she been able to heal from the injuries that she suffered? Oh, yeah, for sure. I took her back to the ortho to get a clear picture of her x-ray after a couple months. And the bone is perfectly healed back together.

It's one bone again. She's doing great. She's moving it freely before I even knew. it was healed before we even took her to the daughter to see it was healed she took herself out of the arm cast and she was like no do not put me back in there every time i tried she was like telling me no taking herself out so i called the doctor i told them what she was doing we took her and her arm was ready to go and she knew before i did well that i'm glad to hear that um take me back to the beginning though um you know before we started recording here

You and I were talking and Sarah Smith is somebody that you considered your friend. You guys were friends. So talk to me about how you trusted her to watch your daughter and not only your daughter, but your son. Yeah, for sure. I moved here where I live a few years ago. So I've been here for about four years. And when I moved down here, that's the first person I met because I was already for myself

looking for a babysitter or something else to do on the same. side because I was trying to get a job and everything, you know, because I just moved. We met, we clicked, we linked up immediately. We just got along. We had the same, you know, kids around the same age. We hung out with the kids together. I watched her kids at first. I was her babysitter first. Then we just started, you know, getting closer, hanging out together. We celebrated birthdays together. I came to her kids party. She came to mine. You know, we went to the parks together. We did a lot of stuff together, you know, as friends and our kids together. This was not the first time my kids have been at her house. This was not the second time, not the third time.

There's many times before that they've been there. You know, they slept there whenever I had, you know, my Jackson, I had Jaila. They slept there when I was in the hospital giving birth. You know what I'm saying? So it was just like a big surprise. She was my friend for about four years. She was someone I trusted, you know, someone I would never, I didn't ever think, you know, this would happen. there was no like red flag beforehand that would make me think you know she's going to harm my baby like this well and finding good child care as a parent is really hard it's really tough you know you trust these people and to take care of your baby some you know and then they do these horrible things that you don't even think like know how this how they're capable of doing stuff like this I don't understand

My baby, you know, at the time, she wasn't crawling. She wasn't rolling. There's no way she would have rolled off a sofa or nothing like that. There's no way she should have had any type of scratch on her, no bruising of any kind, like anything. None of that is just unacceptable. No way. When did you realize that something was wrong with your baby girl, that she was hurt and whatever pain she was in was, Not normal. So I had dropped them off Saturday on a Saturday. It was like afternoonish. And then I picked them up Monday morning. So when I picked them up Monday morning, I met her to go get them. And immediately when I was walking up to go get my kids, I seen my son's face, you know, from afar. And it's looking like he has purple like makeup on. I'm like, you know, he's playing in makeup or some. And I'm like, you know, why does he have makeup on? But, you know, it's just.

whatever I wash it off so I'm walking up to him when I pick him up I can just see like there's bruising knots and he has a black eye and I'm like immediately okay what is going on why does this face look like this she's like okay we just got here she was at this house she's cleaning she works as a cleaning person or whatever so she was at this house she was like we just got here we just got out the car he must have just fell right now I'm so sorry I didn't see I didn't notice whatever you know I'm like okay where is Jen That's my baby's name.

I said, where's Genesis? She said she's still in the car. We just got here. I said, okay, I get her car seat. When I pick her up at the car seat and she sees me, she just starts bawling crying. And like I said, my baby does not cry. She's not a crier. She never really cried like that other than when she's like hungry.

And it's barely even, it's like it's a soft cry. But I can just tell like by her cry, like it's not like something was going on. She's telling you something's wrong. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So I'm taking the car seat or walking to my car. And I'm just talking to her, trying to calm her down. And she's not like hearing that. She's just so fussy. So I'm like, okay, let me just get her home. I put Jackson in the car. You know, we go home. I'm ready to get because she's crying the whole way home. It's about a 50 minute drive back to my house. So she's crying the whole way. So I immediately, whenever I get home, I just take her out of her car seat. And when I pick her up out of her car seat. And when I pick her up out of her car. seat, her arm is just like, you know, just kind of like dangling behind her a little bit. And I'm just like noticing, but I'm not thinking nothing like crazy, you know? I'm just like, okay, my baby's fussy. Like, I'm feeling she has a, she needs a diaper chain. So I'm like, okay, let me go change her diaper.

Maybe she needs a bottle. So I go to my bed and I go lay her down and I'm unzipping her, you know, onesie to change her and she has a bruise on her left knee. Just like a circle bruise on her left knee. and a bruise on her forehead, and it's a scratch in the middle of the bruise on her forehead, and I immediately pick up my phone, and I text Sarah, and I said, Why does Genesis have a bruise on her forehead and on her knee? Immediately, she is sending back two huge paragraphs, and I'm already like, what? Because I ask you one simple question, I should get one simple answer. I'm already skimming through seeing none of that says why there's a bruise on her here and here.

So I'm irritated. I'm like, what's going on? You know, after seeing his face and out seeing this, I'm like, okay, what's going on? So then I open up her diaper. I see another bruise. Oh. And I'm just like, what? Sorry. It's okay.

And so I text her again, and I'm like, why is there bruises all over her? And again, she's just sending me like these paragraphs that have absolutely. nothing to do with why I'm asking her this question. It's just nonsense at this point. And I'm like, okay, I'm frustrated. So my baby's, like, upset. I'm still not knowing anything about her arm, other than it's, like, just hanging a little bit. So I call the doctor and I make her an appointment. That day, I called the doctor and I make her an appointment. And they're like, okay, we'll see you the next morning. I don't really say too much on the phone other than I need to get her seen, you know? So, uh, for the bruises. Because I'm

what I'm thinking so far only. So the next morning we go to the doctor and immediately the doctor comes in the room, you know, she's ready to, you know, check out Genesis. I'm just like stopping her and telling her like what just happened and there's bruises on her. I'm showing her the bruises she's looking at Genesis arm because I'm telling her, you know, showing her how it's hanging. She's like, yeah, it looks really swollen. And I'm like, you know what? It does. Because my baby, she's super chunky, so it's hard to even tell if she is. swollen, but I can tell in the slightest that it was bigger than her other arm. And then she's touching on her legs, checking out the bruise on her knee, and she's like, her legs are also

swollen. And I said, okay, so what does this mean? She's like, I'm not sure. We're going to have to go get x-rays done. So immediately from there, the pediatric office, we just go straight to the hospital right across the street. We get some x-rays, and then they tell me then and there, and they show me that my baby's arm, it was literally like in two, just like that. And each of her leg and her tibias were fractured. So from there, we get the x-rays, and as soon as I get the x-rays, I text her again. And I said, Sarah, what the what did you do to my kids? And she immediately sends more paragraphs.

And I'm just like, okay, I can't do this anymore. Now the sheriffs are talking to me. Now, D-Fax is talking to me. I have nothing to say to them. Other than, I have no idea what happened. My kids were at the babysitters. I was at work. I'm thinking everything's okay.

Every time I'm checking on them, every picture I'm getting, every message I'm getting, every message I'm getting is just good, good news. Like, nothing's looking wrong. You know, nothing of concern. No breathing's in the picture is nothing like that. So it's just like, I have no idea. happened, how it happened, or none of that. So I have nothing to tell them really.

Other than, you know, everything that's in my phone from the message is and all that. Did the sheriff's detectives and GBI talk with Sarah? Did she ever speak with them? I'm sure she did. I don't know when they contacted her or when they went to her house and that, but I know they were doing,

you know, the same process they were doing with me talking to me they ultimately ended up filing a charge against her of cruelty to children and that that has to do with Genesis your baby girl so I mean that happened just in the last several days so how are you feeling about that thank God Genesis wasn't a more seriously hurt but this is still a very serious charge and I'm not so glad that she's healing, but how are you feeling about this? I mean, I'm glad that, you know, she's, you know, got charged. She is out. She got bonded out, though. So, you know, we're just waiting for a court date to see, like, you know, if she's going to get, you know, actually in trouble still, or she's

going to get cut loose. I don't know. She needs to be in trouble. You know, she needs to face jail time. People need to know, you know, because this woman goes on Facebook and she's like, I can watch you kids. I can watch your kids to everybody, you know, offering to watch all these kids. And she watches other kids, too. So, and she has her own kids that people need to know, like, this lady's not safe to have your kids. I didn't even know what actually happened. And who knows if it's the actual truth until the date she was booked. And this happened in February. So did Sarah ever offer you an explanation besides this? She never even texted me. The last day we texted about anything was the day I found out. That was the last day. Never checked up on me. Never checked up on Genesis. Never checked up on the

situation. Never anything. That was the last day I heard anything from her. And I didn't feel like I should reach out to her because I was angry. Like I'm still angry at her. In those text messages, I read some of them that were posted on social media. It sounded like she was blaming other kids. Yeah. But the thing is, the thing is, my baby at that month. old, three months old, should not be on the floor around babies that aren't even over five years old. You know, it doesn't make any sense. My son, that's one year old, was there. Her daughter, that's two years old, was there, and her five-year-old daughter.

And her six-year-old daughter. So that's no excuse for that. My baby should not be on the floor, getting run around, getting trampled on by all these kids, and you're not doing anything about it. And I'm not knowing anything about it. I'm the mother, you know? I should know immediately, if anything happens.

She's charged with cruelty to children, though, so it doesn't sound to me as if that's what the sheriff's office and the GBI investigators believe happened. I'm not sure what they believe happened. I know they don't believe what she's saying. I don't believe what she's saying. It's been so many stories, so much nonsense come out of her mouth. And like I said, I didn't even know what she told the sheriff,

like a few things. I didn't even know she told the sheriff until the sheriff told me. You know, she wasn't telling me this stuff. So it's just like, who knows if what she even saying happened is the actual story. What do you want people to know from what you've been through? I mean, I don't know. It's just, it's hard. Like, you know, I'm a single mom and I have four kids and I have to work to take care of them.

mean, you know, it's like, she was my friend and it's like, you can't trust anybody. Friends, family, strangers, like, it doesn't, you don't even know who can do this to your kid. I just want them to know, like, she's not safe to watch your kids. If she's offering to watch your kids, you know, do not take them over there. Because I thought she was safe and she's not. I trusted her, and she broke my trust. I'm not sure if she still is. I just know, like, you know, when she was watching my children when it recently had when it happened she was watching other kids as well so and you know she comments is on all the on all the posts you know i have people coming to me now like i'm so glad i didn't take him over there she offered to watch my kids several times you know stuff like that so

well samantha i'm so glad that genesis has healed and is continuing to heal and i'm so glad she wasn't more seriously hurt. And I'm glad your son is doing, doing better. Thank you so much for talking with me. I really appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for having me. Thank you. As Samantha Mullen mentioned, Sarah Smith posted bail. A future court date for her has not yet been set. But guess what? The GBI says this investigation is active and it's ongoing. And they're asking for people to contact them. Anyone with information about Sarah. Smith or injuries to other children is asked to call the GBI. They can also submit tips online. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me.

Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube. You can also watch and listen to us on Spotify. I'll see you back here next time.