Ka’myla Somers was just 10 months old on November 20, 2022, when her mother, Daisha L. Somers, took her to Hocking Valley Community Hospital Emergency Room in Logan, Ohio. The toddler had extensive bruising on her face and was not breathing on her own. Doctors quickly put her on life support. Crews later transferred Ka’myla via helicopter to Nationwide Children’s Hospital Trauma Center in Columbus.
Sadly, her condition never improved, and they made the difficult choice to remove life support on November 23, 2022, and Ka’myla died. More than three years later, her mother faces murder charges.
The Hocking County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Somers and her boyfriend, Jerry K. Johnson IV, following Ka’myla’s death, and the pair said they heard a “thud” on November 20, and went to investigate. They claimed the toddler fell out of her toddler bed. They waited hours to take Ka’myla to the emergency room and never called 911 for help.
Johnson changed his story during a separate interview and said he found Ka’myla unresponsive while Somers was away doing laundry, according to the sheriff’s office’s news release. Somers reportedly admitted she did drugs and drank alcohol the day they took Ka’myla to the emergency room. An investigation into the child’s injuries told a different story than her mother and boyfriend told police.
“During the investigation, detectives were able to find that falling out of the toddler bed, was inconsistent with the trauma she had suffered. This included approximately seven (7) skull fractures, bleeding of the stomach, blood in the urine, retinal hemorrhages, multiple strokes, and prolonged cardiac arrest,” the sheriff’s office noted in the release.
Prosecutors initially charged Somers and Johnson with third-degree felonious child endangerment. Three years later, Ohio Attorney General David Yost announced Somer’s indictment on murder charges. The Mason County Sheriff’s Office and West Virginia State Police arrested Somers in Mount Pleasant, West Virginia, on December 19, 2025. She is being held in Western Regional Jail in Barboursville.
Somers now faces 10 felony charges, including two counts of murder, four counts of endangering a child, and one count each of involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, corrupting another with drugs, and aggravated possession of drugs.
If what prosecutors say is true, Somers wasn’t a mother but a monster. Her baby girl didn’t deserve to have her life end before it even really began. The state of Ohio takes murder seriously. If convicted, Somers could get the death penalty.
