OPELIKA, Ala. (WRBL) — A Lee County Grand Jury has indicted an Opelika woman and her former boyfriend in the 22-year-old cold case murder of her four-month-old baby boy.
On April 23, 2000, Opelika police and EMS were called to the 400 block of Raintree Street and located baby boy, Jarquavious Hughley, deceased at the house. An Alabama Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation.
Investigators say Jarquavious was under the care of his mother, Tomeika Hughley, and her boyfriend, Bobby Beaty, when the child died. An investigation was conducted, however, no arrests were made in the child’s murder.
Then, twenty years later, in 2020 Hugely was charged with Chemical Endangerment of a Child by Opelika police when she allegedly gave birth to a baby with cocaine in the child’s system. As investigators were looking into that case, they also reviewed the investigation involving Hughley and the 2000 death of her son.
Following additional information obtained by investigators, the Lee County District Attorney’s Office found sufficient evidence to present the case to a Lee County Grand Jury. In April, the Grand Jury returned an indictment against Tomeika Hughley, age 43, and Bobby Beaty, age 42, charging them each with murder.
Beaty and Hughley were arrested by the U.S. Marshals following the indictment. Beaty was arrested in Opelika on August 3, 2022. Hughley was arrested in Dayton Beach, FL, and extradited to Alabama on August 27. Both remain in the custody of the Lee County Detention facility.