A Pensacola woman is being investigated for homicide after her 5-year-old son’s body was found in a bag in Perdido Bay near Lillian Highway on Feb. 6, 2026.
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said “the suspect in this case is the victim’s mother,” 36-year-old Jalynda Smith, who was located and taken into custody a few hours after the child’s body was discovered.
At this time, the child’s cause of death is unknown, as are the circumstances leading to the child’s death.
Here’s what we do know about the case.
Jalynda Smith expected to face homicide charge in son’s death
Simmons posted an urgent message on the ECSO Facebook page around 12:30 p.m. Feb. 6 asking for the public’s help locating Smith.
The sheriff’s message said that deputies had received a report of a body being found off Lillian Highway that morning. Upon arrival, deputies discovered the body of a 5-year-old boy in a trash bag.
Simmons described the case as a murder investigation, noting the suspect in the case is the victim’s mother.
The sheriff made a second post later the same afternoon saying that Smith had been arrested, was being transported to the Sheriff’s Office, and when she arrived “she will then face these charges.”
Simmons said the Medical Examiner’s Office is working to determine the child’s cause of death. He did not disclose how investigators identified Smith as the suspect in the case.
Jalynda Smith’s sister first raised concerns about the victim
Simmons said officials received a call from Jalynda Smith’s sister sharing concerns about her nephew at about 9:30 a.m. Feb. 6.
At 10:14 a.m., deputies found the child’s body along the Perdido Bay shoreline where it had apparently washed up a short distance from Lillian Highway.
Simmons put out a call for the public’s assistance locating Smith at 12:32 p.m., and he said she was in custody by 1:50 p.m.
Jalynda Smith had prior child neglect arrest
Court records indicate Smith pleaded no contest to child neglect without great bodily harm in 2022.
According to her arrest report, Smith’s charge stemmed from leaving a child “alone in a soiled diaper for approximately 3 hrs.”
On May 31, 2022, a maintenance employee at Smith’s apartment complex said he was conducting unit inspections and heard an infant crying in a closed bedroom. He said he opened the door and found an infant in a crib in a soiled diaper.
He contacted the office manager and stayed with the child.
Deputies arrived on scene shortly afterward, at around 12:20 p.m. A responding deputy noted there was a wireless camera mounted on the wall and pointed at the crib.
Smith was met by deputies when she returned to the apartment complex and told them she had only gone to the store. She had a bag with drinks and cigarillos from the Circle K on Olive Road and a receipt dated 10:04 a.m., more than two hours prior to her return to the apartment.
She was arrested and a Department of Children and Families investigator was assigned to the care and temporarily took the child into custody.
Smith ultimately pleaded no contest to the charge and was admitted to a pre-trial intervention program. She was required to complete a parenting skills course, abide by a Department of Children and Families case plan, and follow other stipulations of the pre-trial intervention program, according to court records.
She successfully completed the pre-trial intervention program and the charges were dismissed in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola’s Jalynda Smith arrested in 5-year-old son’s homicide case. What we know
Reporting by Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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