Woman Who Once Smothered Baby Arrested For Biting, Stabbing Security Guard
Two years after she avoided jail time for smothering her 2-month-old baby during a drug-induced haze, Melanie Hayward, 25, stabbed a Wal-Mart security guard with a pen when he tried to stop her from using stolen credit cards, according to deputies.
Hayward, who is listed as a prostitute in police records, is charged with aggravated battery, fraudulent use of a credit card, unauthorized possession of a driver license, burglary and grand theft auto.
She was supposed to go before a judge this morning, but said she was sick and the hearing was rescheduled for Friday.
According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Hayward went to the Wal-Mart on North Congress Avenue in Lake Park on Wednesday at 9:50 a.m. and tried to buy $334.38 of merchandise with another woman’s stolen credit cards. She then provided the cashier with that woman’s license and the cashier rejected it, saying Hayward did not look like the woman in the picture.
Hayward tried to take the cards back and bolted for the door. When the officer she described as a “big man” tried to stop her, she stabbed him with a pen in the chest and left arm, then bit him several times in his lower legs, according to the arrest report.
She later told police that earlier that day, she and a friend smoked crack and then broke into an apartment in West Palm Beach to steal a purse containing the credit cards, as well as the Volvo she drove to the store.
Hayward has been arrested several times since her baby’s death.
On Nov. 14, 2005, Hayward rolled onto her 2-month-old son Jalin in a drug-induced haze, suffocating him. However, prosecutors declined to file manslaughter charges against her.
Police had also charged Hayward’s mother, Cynthia Hayward, who police reports also list as a prostitute, with neglect of a child causing great bodily harm a few days after the boy’s death, citing deplorable conditions and drug use inside the one-room boarding house where they all lived. Those charges were also dropped.
Tags: Auto, boarding house, bodily harm, burglary, cynthia hayward, deplorable conditions, Grand Theft Auto, jail time, lake park, left arm, manslaughter charges, month old baby, palm beach, palm beach county, palm beach county sheriff, police records, security guard, stolen credit cards, unauthorized possession, Volvo, wal mart, west palm beach
