REMEMBERING NAOMI

Naomi Lei Patricia Nichols was two years old when she died in October 2014.

Her mother, Courtney Nichols, remembered her simply and powerfully: Naomi was perfect, and her family missed her.

At two years old, Naomi was still discovering everything around her. She should have had years ahead of her for her personality to unfold, for her family to learn what she loved, and for her childhood to become filled with memories.

Instead, most of what survives publicly about Naomi comes from the investigation into her death.

Even her full name, Naomi Lei Patricia Nichols, is easier to find today in burial records than details about what she liked to play with or what made her laugh. She was laid to rest at Fairview Cemetery in Van Buren, Arkansas.

That imbalance is one of the reasons Naomi deserves to be remembered here.

She was not simply a two year old in a police report.

She was Naomi.

NAOMI’S STORY

In October 2014, Naomi was staying in the Fort Smith area in the home of her paternal aunt and uncle. Arkansas Department of Human Services records confirm that this was her placement at the time of her death.

On October 14, Naomi was in the care of her uncle, C.J. Davis.

Later, Davis brought Naomi to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith.

He told medical personnel that Naomi had fallen down stairs and was not acting normally afterward. According to his account, he put her under a cold shower in an attempt to wake her up. When Naomi vomited, he took her to the hospital.

Naomi was covered in bruises.

Her condition was critical.

Doctors attempted to save her, but the injuries inside her body were devastating.

Naomi died at the hospital.

She was two years old.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services classified the incident as a child fatality involving abuse and internal injuries. The Fort Smith Police Department and Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division investigated.

An autopsy revealed severe internal trauma and evidence that Naomi had been sexually assaulted shortly before her death.

The explanation that Naomi had simply fallen down the stairs could not account for what doctors and investigators found.

Davis was arrested in connection with his niece's death.

SYSTEM FAILURES & WARNING SIGNS

Naomi's death did not occur without previous concerns about her safety.

Official Arkansas Department of Human Services records show that the child protection system had received multiple reports involving Naomi before she died.

On June 24, 2013, there was a neglect report.

It was determined to be unsubstantiated.

On April 15, 2014, another neglect report was received.

It too was determined to be unsubstantiated.

Then, on August 18, 2014, less than two months before Naomi's death, there was an abuse report.

That allegation was also determined to be unsubstantiated.

Three separate reports involving neglect or abuse had therefore reached Arkansas child protection authorities during Naomi's short life.

None resulted in a substantiated finding.

Then, on October 14, 2014, Naomi suffered the injuries that would kill her.

The official child fatality record classified her death as abuse involving internal injuries.

Naomi was only two years old.

She had already been the subject of three previous child welfare reports.

The final abuse report came less than two months before her death.

Those earlier reports do not, by themselves, establish that investigators could have predicted exactly what would eventually happen to Naomi.

But they establish something important.

Concerns about Naomi's safety existed before she died.

Her death was not the first time someone had worried that this little girl might not be safe.

JUSTICE FOR NAOMI

Following Naomi's death, investigators focused on her uncle, who had been caring for her before she was brought to the hospital.

Davis initially denied sexually assaulting or killing Naomi.

He was arrested and prosecuted in connection with her death.

Rather than proceeding through a full murder trial, the case was ultimately resolved through a guilty plea.

Davis pleaded guilty to first degree murder and rape for what he had done to his two year old niece.

He received consecutive prison sentences: forty years for murder and twenty years for rape.

C.J. Davis

Relationship to Naomi: Uncle and Caregiver

Conviction(s): First degree murder; Rape

Sentence: 40 years for first degree murder and 20 years for rape, served consecutively

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Naomi was born on November 20, 2011.

She never reached her third birthday.

She should have.

There should have been candles and presents and a three year old little girl becoming more independent by the day.

There should have been a fourth birthday after that, and a fifth.

There should have been school pictures, friendships, scraped knees, favorite songs, stubborn phases and all the ordinary pieces of childhood that become precious precisely because they are ordinary.

Instead, Naomi's life ended in a hospital when she was two.

The official records tell us about three reports to child protection authorities.

They tell us about bruises and internal injuries.

They tell us about an investigation.

And the criminal case tells us what happened to the man responsible.

Those records are necessary.

But none of them can tell us everything Naomi would have become.

Her mother's words come closer.

Naomi was her little girl.

She was loved.

She was missed.

And she was perfect to the people who loved her.

Naomi's life cannot be reduced to the violence inflicted upon her at its end.

She had a name.

Naomi Lei Patricia Nichols.

She had a family.

She had a place in this world for two years, ten months and twenty five days.

She should have had much longer.

Abuse Angels remembers Naomi Lei Patricia Nichols.

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.