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Published: December 27, 2007 5:21 a.m.

Mom extradited in child-death case

Will return to Michigan on ‘accessory' count

By Rebecca S. Green
The Journal Gazette
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Snowden

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A 23-year-old woman arrested in connection with a mummified toddler discovered early last week at a Fort Wayne home waived extradition to answer to criminal charges in Michigan.

St. Clair County prosecutors charged Ashley Snowden, formerly of the 3500 block of Raymond Avenue, with accessory after the fact to a felony. They also charged John William Gonzales, 38, with murder, first-degree child abuse and being a habitual offender.

The couple were charged Friday by Michigan authorities after Fort Wayne police discovered Dec. 18 the body of whom they believe to be 18-month-old Braylon Bishop Gonzales wrapped in a plastic bag and placed inside a storage container in a small house on Raymond Avenue. Investigators believe the body had, at one time, been encased in concrete, and an autopsy revealed the child died from blunt-force trauma to the head.

Police in Port Huron, Mich., believe the child was killed there in 2005.

At a hearing Wednesday morning, Snowden, believed to be the child’s mother, waived extradition to Michigan. It is unclear when she will face a judge in St. Clair County.

Gonzales, believed to be the boy’s father, was initially charged in Allen County with criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and neglect of a dependent in connection with a Dec. 18 standoff with police at the Raymond Avenue home.

Police, armed with a consent-to-search formed signed by Snowden, went to the home and when they knocked, no one answered.

The officers unlocked the door and went inside, and Gonzales reportedly grabbed his 2-year-old daughter and fled into another room, telling police he had a knife. After Gonzales surrendered, police found the body, according to police and court documents.

The three children living in the home, ages 5, 2 and 6 months, were taken into protective custody, police said.

It was unclear Wednesday when Gonzales would be brought before an Allen County judge for an extradition hearing. He has not been formally charged in Allen County.

rgreen@jg.net