Documents Reveal Details In Death Of Baby In Noble

Court documents reveal new details in the death of a five-month-old baby in Noble.

Melissa Clark,45, of Noble had her initial appearance in a Cleveland County courtroom Monday, where she was formally charged with murder. Her bond was set at $750,000, despite the prosecutor’s request to set her bond at $5 million.

Clark was booked into the Cleveland County jail Monday afternoon.

Several friends and family members showed up to court to show her support, but none would comment about the allegations of murder and child abuse she now faces.

Police showed up at Clark’s Rolling Meadows home in Noble last Tuesday after getting a call about an unresponsive infant, and when they discovered the baby unconscious, they rushed her to a Norman hospital. She was then flown to Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa where she died over the weekend.

The medical examiner's office identifies the baby as 5-month-old Braelyn Zachary and right now, her cause and manner of death are pending.

A GoFundMe account was set up for Braelyn's family.

But court documents reveal she suffered severe head trauma and that Clark admitted she dropped her and threw her because she was stressed.

Sheila Henderson lives next door to the home daycare and is shocked at the allegations against Clark.

“She's a very kind gentle woman," said Henderson. "I’ve never heard her blow up on the kids, always be so sweet to the kids so kind to the children.”

But court documents paint a very different picture of Clark.

They state she told investigators that she dropped Braelyn and that she hit the tile floor. Two hours later she threw Braelyn to the bouncy seat located three feet away.

Clark told investigators the baby's body hit the metal bar and then fell onto the floor.

The affidavit states Clark said at the time she threw the baby, the baby was crying and that other children were arguing and fighting and she couldn't get them to stop.

The court documents go on to state that Clark felt like a loser and was about to lose it all financially since her son was fighting criminal charges.

She said she did try to perform CPR on the baby.

News 9 checked with DHS and their report shows they made 10 visits to Clark's home daycare in the last year and had no major violations.

Follow this link to the Summary of Facility Monitoring for the home child care operated by Clark.  

The daycare has been shut down in light of this recent incident and an investigation is underway.