Staff Writer

PICKENS COUNTY - The father and grandmother of a child who died last March has been indicted by a Pickens County grand jury on charges of homicide by child abuse and aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse, officials with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office said.

Donna Lynn Phillips, paternal grandmother of Jaidon Edward Morris, has been indicted for homicide by child abuse and her son, Jamie Edward Morris, was indicted for aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse, court documents said.

The indictments came nine months after the 22-month-old child was discovered unresponsive in the 103 Ivey Hayes Road, Pickens, home of Phillips, 52, and Morris, 24.

On March 17, the child was brought into the Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital Emergency Room in cardiac arrest, where he was placed on a ventilator and airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he later died.

Autopsy results showed the child died from an overdose of hydrocodone, Investigator Rita Burgess, with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, said.

Hydrocodone is a narcotic medication used in the relief of moderate to moderately severe pain.

The child had been in the custody of the state's Department of Social Services and was in the home of a foster parent for ten months previous to his death, Burgess said.

The baby had only been returned to his parents for five days before he died, she said.

Phillips and Morris' arrests are pending the issuance of bench warrants, which should be forthcoming later this week, she said.