Inset: Lyrica Maisha Noble (Craighead County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The suburban area where Noble allegedly falsely claimed her infant son had been left outside for nearly half an hour in Jonesboro, Ark. (Google Maps).
Surprising revelations have emerged, casting doubt on child endangerment charges brought against an Arkansas resident earlier this month, according to officials.
Recent findings suggest the child involved may never have been at risk.
Lyrica Maisha Noble, aged 27, faces accusations of filing a fraudulent report with law enforcement, as stated by the Jonesboro Police Department. This charge is considered a lower-level felony within Arkansas.
Initially, the allegations were directed at Noble’s child’s father, Larry Donell Lee, also 27, based on what are now believed to be unsubstantiated claims.
The incident in question took place on November 6, outside a home on Churchill Drive in Jonesboro, a college town about 70 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. On that day, Lee was looking after the child while Noble ran errands, as detailed in a probable cause affidavit accessed by Law&Crime.
The situation escalated into an argument between the parents, with Lee informing Noble that he intended to return the child to her home. Despite Noble’s protest that she was not at home, Lee allegedly expressed disbelief and insisted on proceeding.
The child was left on the front porch in his car seat.
Initially, Noble told law enforcement the infant “had been left outside alone for approximately 30 minutes.” But the mother recently admitted she actually was home when the baby boy was dropped off, officials say.
But the child may have hardly been alone at all, but rather instantly retrieved from just outside the residence by his mother after his father dropped him off — vindicating Lee’s version of events.
The drastic narrative shift occurred two days after the original report.
The woman’s first story emerged on Nov. 19.
“Noble reported that she was not at her residence when Lee dropped off their infant child,” according to an affidavit obtained by NEA Report, an online news website covering Northeastern Arkansas. “Noble further claimed that when she arrived, she found the child in a car seat with vomit on them.”
On Nov. 21, the story changed significantly.
“Noble admitted that she had been at the residence the entire time Lee was attempting to contact her,” the affidavit goes on. “She acknowledged that when Lee informed her the baby had been left outside, she was already home and retrieved the child immediately. Noble’s admission confirmed that she had provided false information regarding the alleged endangerment of the minor, which had led to a felony warrant being issued for Lee and his subsequent arrest for child endangerment.”
After her apparent admission, Noble was arrested and booked in the Craighead County Detention Center. She does not appear on the jail’s roster as of this writing. The defendant is slated to appear in court on Jan. 23, court records show.
Law&Crime reached out to the Jonesboro Police Department for additional details on this story — particularly the status of Lee’s case — but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
