Newborn Found Dead in Gas Station Dumpster—45-Year-Old Man Charged | James Boothe

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Even though this is the last day

She had just given birth in the backseat of a car. But instead of making it to the hospital, the man driving dumped, um, the newborn in a gas station dumpster. When police arrived, they uncovered not just a dead infant, but years of abuse, exploitation, and a twisted secret no one saw coming. Welcome, LaMs. Welcome to love and heartbreak, to Homicide, your midweek mini edition. My name is Ky and I want to remind you that April is Child Abuse prevention month. Now, this is the last day of April and although these child abuse stories are heavier than most, the victims are younger, the details are harder to hear. We won’t look away. Even though this is the last day of Child Abuse Prevention Month, it does not mean that it’s the last day to, to speak up if you see child abuse. It is not. And I will continue doing certain stories that pertains to child abuse. Even though it is hard, even though it’s hard for you to hear, even though it’s hard for me to do. These stories do need to be told and I am going to be using my platform to share stories of child abuse, of domestic abuse and of cases that the victims need their story heard. So let’s keep marching forward and fighting the fight for child abuse prevention all throughout the year. And if you want more content and to support this work, then, uh, join us over in the LaM fam at patreon.com/loveandmurder uh, you can join for free and you do get some benefits for joining for free. However, if you do want to be a supporter of the work that I’m doing and getting the victim stories out there, then go ahead and choose any one of my bonus tiers that you have and support love and murder. Patreon.com/loveandmurder now let’s get into this midweek mini.

Judge dismissed corpse abuse charges against James Booth, but not the investigation

Just after 9am on January 27, 2025, Memphis Police Department officers responded to a suspicious call on the 3100 block of teak Rock Lane at the Flair woods apartment. A teenage girl flagged them down. The 16 year old girl told officers that her friend named James had dropped her off after she gave birth about two hours ago. She said that she had gone into labor while being driven to a Memphis hospital by this James, but they never made it to the emergency room with a living baby. The teenager told police that while they were in the car, she went into labor and gave birth to a baby girl. According to her statement, the man she was with later identified as 45 year old James Booth. 45 year old James Booth took the newborn from the seat she alleges that James put her newborn daughter in a black plastic bag and dumped her in a dumpster behind a Shell station located at 1312 East Shelby Drive. That’s when she called the police. Okay, I’m not shaming, totally not shaming. I’m just trying to picture this in my head. Why didn’t she run after the child or run after him or try to stop him? Maybe she was too weak after giving birth. But look, I’m totally. I’m seriously not trying to shame her. I’m just trying to paint a picture in my head, that’s all. And, you know, we have to ask the question, so I just asked that question. So anyway, she called the police, and around 11:30am Memphis firefighters arrived at the Shell station. Inside the dumpster, they found the body of a baby girl. It’s not clear whether she was born alive, but what’s clear is that no one tried to save her. That’s why I was wondering, like, I’m going to give the mother the benefit of a doubt and maybe she was too weak to, like, get into the dumpster. Maybe she was too weak to. I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt. And maybe she called police because that’s what she could do at that time. And even though the report said, you know, no one tried to save her, maybe nobody else was around. I’m not really sure. So after she spoke to police, she was taken to the Regional One Hospital and listed in non critical condition. Now, this 16 year old girl’s name wasn’t released to the public and was only identified through court documents and police reports. So because her name isn’t anywhere in any news articles, I left it out as well. What we do know is that she had been in a relationship with James for three years. So since she was 13 and he was 42, where’s this child’s parents? But anyway, James obviously became the focus of the investigation. Surveillance footage from the Shell gas station showed a man fitting James description driving up in a dark Infinity SUV walking to the dumpster and throwing away a black plastic bag. Investigators later confirmed that James owned an Infiniti QX5. Investigators also say a location tracking app on his phone placed him at the gas station around the time the girl said the baby was dumped. James was arrested the very next day in a 5400 block of Hudgens. And after his arrest, police found a loaded firearm in the passenger seat of his car. He was originally charged with Abuse of a corpse. Now, here’s where things took a weird turn. On March 7, 2025, Shelby County Judge Sheila Renfrow dismissed the corpse abuse charge. The court records say it was due to a, quote, lack of prosecution. So the charge was dropped, but not the investigation. So, I, uh, mean, I understand it’s two separate entities. The judge dropped the charges, but the DA’s office was like, we’re not dropping this investigation. And they made it clear that they were still reviewing that allegation and that James wouldn’t be walking free. Now, you. You might be asking why, even though the judge dismissed the charges, which is just insane to me. Like, I don’t understand that. What is lack of prosecution? Let’s find this out. Because I just. I don’t understand. And you’re going to hear me clicking around. I don’t understand why she would drop those charges. So let’s find out what lack of prosecution means.

A notice of lack of prosecution indicates that the case has been inactive

All right, so U.S. legal says that lack of prosecution, or LOP, refers to a situation where a court closes a case as nothing has been filed within a specified period of time. Technicalities. This can occur when the plaintiff does not take action to continue the proceedings within a reasonable amount of time. The reason for this could be due to various factors such as illness, financial difficulties, or lack of interest. A, uh, notice of lack of prosecution indicates that the court intends to throw out the plaintiff’s case because the case has been inactive for a long time. So this guy, allegedly, I have to say allegedly, because the case is still ongoing, threw a newborn baby in the trash, and through a technicality, you dropped the charges. I gotta be with the DA’s office on this one. But anyway, the DA went against that and said they’re not dropping the investigation, uh, because they’d already found a whole slew of new evidence and were getting ready to hit him with five more charges. So on March 12, 2025, a grand jury indicted James on five. Five, uh, felony sex charges tied to his relationship with a teenager. Look, I guess they couldn’t make murder of a newborn baby stick, which, truthfully, like, they said they didn’t know if the baby was alive or dead when it was dumped in the trash. So I can’t say murder, and that’s all alleged, but still, you dumped a newborn baby in the trash. Like, even if it was. Even if it was stillborn, you didn’t even give it a burial, just trash to you, you son of. So anyways, the DA’s office found something else to charge him with, because they were like, he’s going to jail regardless. So they gave him, uh, two counts of trafficking for a commercial sex act, which is eight to 30 years per count, promoting prostitution involving a minor between 12 and 18. Prostitution? You were pimping her out. That might get him 8 to 12 years. Continuous sexual abuse of a child would get between 15 to 60 years and aggravated statutory rape would get 8 to 12 years. Now, I bet you he was so happy to hear that his charges were dropped. He was high fiving. And then the DA said, nope, I’m glad that your happiness was short lived. Trafficking for a commercial sex act involves the exploitation of a person for profit through sexual acts. Promoting prostitution between the ages of 12 to 18 criminalizes facilitating or encouraging a minor to engage in prostitution. That’s what this sick bastard was doing. Continuous sexual abuse of a child refers to repeated sexual acts with a minor. An aggravated statutory rape involves sexual intercourse with a minor below a certain age, often with an added element like an age disparity. Collectively, these charges could result in a sentence, effectively keeping James in prison for the rest of his life if served consecutively. That DA meant that they were getting him. The next day, March 13, James was back in court, where he pled not guilty to all five charges. His bond was set at $1 million, but some sources I saw it said 1.25 million. Either way, it was a million something. And also either way, he’s not getting out anytime soon. He’s currently being held at Shelby County Jail, and from what I saw, his next court date was set for April 22, as of this recording, and this recording comes out on April 30th. But so far I’ve seen no updates, so I don’t know what’s going on with that. As for the latest reports, the case surrounding the death of the newborn and the subsequent sex crime charges against James is still unfolding. The DA’s office put out a statement saying, quote, our Office has indicted Mr. Booth on five additional charges based on evidence from this case and continues to review the abuse of corpse allegation for potential indictment along with additional charges when charges are dismissed in general session. It does not preclude us from pursuing an indictment and moving forward as more evidence becomes available. And as for the newborn, like I said, we still don’t know if it was born alive or stillborn, and police haven’t released the autopsy result or a cause of death. But what we do know is this child was dumped in a gas station dumpster, and the man responsible is also accused of years of abuse and Trafficking involving a teenage girl. The child welfare experts state that Tennessee does provide additional protections for minors involved in vulnerable situations, such as this girl. Now, although the safe haven laws exist in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, their effectiveness is limited by public knowledge. Nationwide data shows that the overall infant homicide rate stands at 7.2 per 100,000 persons per year, with the first day of life being the most dangerous at 74 per 100,000 person per year. And this is a 66.7% decrease decrease from earlier times. This rate remains 5.4 times higher than any other time in life. Wow. The safe haven law includes a confidential helpline which is get a pen and paper if you’re one of the people who needs this. Ready? 866-699. Safe. 86666. Safe. Where mothers can learn about their options during pregnancy or after birth. However, many vulnerable women remain unaware of these, uh, resources. Tennessee’s uh, safe haven law, which was enacted on July 1, 2001, provides a legal alternative for mothers in crisis. The law allows mothers to surrender unharmed newborns anonymously within two weeks of birth without fear of prosecution. Meaning if you didn’t understand what I said, the law allows a mother to surrender her un unharmed newborn without telling them who you are. And you have two weeks to do that, two weeks from the time the baby was born. And you wouldn’t go to jail for this. However, there appears to be some inconsistencies in implementation as other sources indicate. Tennessee has stricter guidelines requiring babies to be 72 hours old or younger. Now 72 hours old is three days. So three days or younger. So some places in Tennessee it says three days or younger and some places it says two, uh, weeks or younger. Now under this safe haven legislation, newborns may be surrendered at specific locations. Hospitals, birthen centers, community health clinics, outpatient walk in clinics, EMS facilities, 24 hour fire stations and 24 hour law enforcement facilities. Now this case isn’t over and I’ll keep watching it closely. If there are updates like new charges, court developments or uh, autopsy findings, I’ll be back with more information. But for now, I just keep thinking about that 16 year old girl, about what she survived and about the baby who didn’t, and about how many more like her might be out there with no one listening. And like I said, these stories aren’t easy, but they are necessary to be heard. If this episode moved you, please take a moment to learn more about child abuse prevention or share this case so more people understand what’s happening behind closed doors. And as I always say, if you suspect child abuse, call the Child Help National Child abuse hotline at 1-800-4-CHILD. That’s 1-800-422-4453. Or go to childhelp.org all calls are toll free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24. 7 in more than 170 languages. And that is all that I have for you for this midweek Mini. As I said, I will keep on looking at this case to see when it’s updated next. And if you want bonus episodes or to just show support of the show, then join us over in the LaM fam at patreon.com/loveandmurder. Uh, thank you for listening. Thank you for your support, and thank you so much for being a LaM Patreon. And I will see you in the next episode. Bye.