Mom: Layla is 'a living miracle'

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) - While a Zeeland-area man now faces charges for allegedly abusing his baby daughter, her mother said she's just happy her daughter has made a recovery.
 
"She's made it through. And she's a living miracle," Jessy Jones told 24 Hour News 8 Wednesday night.

Her daughter Layla just turned one. In late March, Layla -- just 5 months old at the time -- was hospitalized at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital for five fractures to her growth plates.

"No lasting injuries. She's completely healed," Jones said gratefully. "It's been difficult, but it's also been very encouraging to see how far she's come in her progress."

Prosecutors accuse Layla's father Ryan Kupres of hurting the girl. He faces a first-degree child abuse charge and being a habitual offender. In April, Kupres told 24 Hour News 8 he "didn't do anything" to Layla.

Jones said Wednesday that she didn't know charges were coming, but that she's "not shocked."

Ottawa County Sheriff's Department investigators arrested Kupres for allegedly assaulting Layla based in part on a timeline that showed who had access to the girl.

They also looked at medical records from a 2008 case in which Kupres pleaded no contest to a child abuse charge concerning the then-3-week-old son he had with another woman. Kupres spent a year in jail for the crime.

The baby in that case also sustained broken bones.

"The injuries were very similar," said Ottawa County Sheriff's Department Lt. Mark Bennett.

Jones said she was shocked when investigators showed her the similarities between her daughter Layla's injuries and the 2008 case.

"To see how similar they were to my daughter, of course that was hard to take in," Jones told 24 Hour News 8.

Jones said she knew Kupres went to jail before, but said she did not know the whole story. She disputed court document that said she knew that Kupres had a past history of abusing his child and put Layla at "unreasonable risk of harm."

"I knew that there had been charges against him, but was misled as to what those where," Jones said.

Jones is allowed to see Layla, as long as she coordinates those times with a state-approved foster family.

"I'm what she has. I'm all she has now," she said.