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By Dawn Burleigh

Orange County District Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted Raychyl Danielle Philmon, on Wednesday, for the offense of Capital Murder.

Philmon was arrested in March, 2019 after an investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division into the death of her 18 month old son, Raydyn Jones.

Philmon was sentenced to LIFE without the possibility of parole after an Orange County Jury deliberated for approximately 40 minutes.

Philmon brought her son to the closed Orange Baptist Hospital at 608 Strickland Drive in Orange in reference to a medical emergency.

A woman, reported to be the mother of the child, told officers she was unaware the hospital emergency room was closed.

Nurses from the Infusion Clinic in operations at the campus immediately began medical care to sustain the child until first responders arrived.

The case was turned over the Orange County Sheriff’s Office as the incident causing the distress for the infant happened outside of Orange City limits.

The baby was transported to a hospital in Beaumont and was declared deceased.

Orange Fire Department, Orange Police Department, Orange county Sheriff’s Office and Acadia Ambulance service responded to the incident.

An autopsy report declared the baby was killed by manual suffocation in the setting of child abuse. Philmon stated, at the time, she found him unresponsive and brought him to the hospital unaware that it had stopped emergency services over two years prior.

Emergency services have been discontinued at the hospital since January 12, 2017. The closure led to a petition requesting an election for the formation of a Hospital District in Orange County. With 1,253 votes for the district and with 6,342 voting against the proposition in the final tally, the hospital district did not pass.

At the time, if one did a search on the internet for Baptist Hospital Orange results showed the site as permanently closed despite the fact that it still provides services. Another search for Baptist Hospital Orange Texas showed it is open normal business hours.

The preliminary autopsy report also named the preliminary manner of death as a homicide, making this the second homicide in Orange County that year, both for children under the age of three.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Orange Police Department, Bridge City Police Department and their officers, along with others, for their diligent work regarding the arrest and prosecution of Philmon.