Lawrence County couple indicted in toddler’s blunt-force-injury death

LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Two people charged with felony murder in the death of a 15-month-old boy nearly two years ago have been indicted by a Lawrence County grand jury, according to court documents.

28-year-old Jordan Ellan Harmon and 30-year-old Travius Sebastian Coleman were dating at the time of their April 2021 arrest in connection to the death of Harmon’s son, Emery Michael-Knox Wilson.

On April 11, 2021, emergency crews were called to the intersection of Highway 24 and County Road 214 where someone was performing CPR on the toddler. The child was taken to Decatur-Morgan Hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Birmingham.

The toddler died in the hospital two days later and an autopsy was ordered.

According to court documents, Harmon and Coleman are accused of “shaking, hitting, striking, or otherwise inflicting serious injury” to the child, along with “inflicting blunt force injuries on more than one occasion.” Documents also state that the pair did “torture, willfully abuse, cruelly beat or otherwise willfully maltreat” him.

Harmon, the child’s mother, was also charged with “refusing to seek medical attention…for having serious injuries that required medical attention and treatment, including, but not excluding injuries to his head, arm and groin area on at least three separate occasions.”

Harmon was arrested on April 12 and charged with aggravated child abuse. She was released on a $60,000 bond in September 2021.

Lawrence County Sheriff Max Sanders would later confirm the autopsy results showed the child died from blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy also revealed there were several other injuries, along with a toxicology report showing the “presence of compounds” similar to those found in cannabis in the child’s system.

Harmon and Coleman were both arrested in January 2022, following the release of the autopsy results. They were both charged with murder, aggravated child abuse and chemical endangerment of a child.

If convicted, each faces a minimum of 10 years up to life in prison. Both remain in jail on $1,680,000 bonds.

Lawrence County District Attorney Errek Jett told News 19 that despite Harmon and Coleman being indicted separately, there is a possibility they could be tried together.

“It is early in the process, but the State reserves the right to ask that the cases be consolidated under Rule 13.3 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure,” Jett explained. “If the State makes such a request and Court grants it, the defendants still have a right to ask them to be [tried separately].”

An arraignment has been set for April 13, 2023, the two-year anniversary of Emery Michael-Knox Wilson’s death.