Godmother to Be Arraigned in Child’s Death : Violence: Woman is accused of hiding toddler’s body in an ottoman. Police say her story ‘just didn’t make sense.’

The 28-year-old guardian and godmother of a 2-year-old boy will be arraigned Monday on charges that she beat the toddler to death and stuffed his body into a living room ottoman, police said Friday.

Rialto Police Sgt. Chris Sullivan said officers found the body Thursday after concluding that Betty Ann Mills’ story that little Marcus Anthony Jackson had simply wandered off “just didn’t make sense.”

After arresting Mills, a counselor at a home for boys in Yucaipa, officers also arrested her roommate, Kimberly Ann Cole. Cole, 35, will be arraigned Monday on charges that she was an accessory to the crime.

Residents of the tidy San Bernardino County neighborhood where the crime took place expressed shock and disbelief Friday.

“On Monday, the Mills lady came up to me and said, ‘Have you seen my little boy? I have reported to police that he is missing,’ ” Daniel Zamorano, a neighbor, said. “I thought she was sincere.”

Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the suspects seemed like “such nice ladies.”

“It’s a shame,” said Gilbert Perez, a friend of the dead child’s father. “That little boy was adorable.”

Sullivan said that because the child’s father was a transient and his mother “was between houses and felt she could not care for him,” legal custody of the boy had been awarded to Mills. Neighbors said the boy and his 8-year-old half brother had been living with Mills and Cole for about a year.

The 2-year-old’s father, Bobby Jackson, who is separated from the child’s mother, Marcella Jackson, said they had chosen Mills and Cole to care for the children because they all were “good friends.”

Bobby Jackson said that even though he once caught Mills using illegal drugs, he “paid it no attention. I mean, I was living in her house, and she was nice to the kids.”

The father said that later, however, he found his son in dirty diapers and with cuts on his neck. Jackson said that when he argued with Mills about her treatment of the child, she called police and he was ordered to leave the property.

Jackson said he pleaded with his wife “to get the kids out of there,” but to no avail.

Marcella Jackson would not comment on how her son came to be in Mills’ custody. She refused to answer any questions and would only say that Mills “pretended in front of us real good. We never thought she would do this to Marcus.”

Police said they believe that Mills beat the child to death about a week ago, crammed his body into a plastic bag and stuffed it through a tear in the bottom of the upholstered ottoman. The tear was sealed with duct tape, detectives said.

On Monday, Sullivan said, Mills called police and reported the child missing. To her surprise, he said, she and Cole were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment.

“There were inconsistencies in their stories,” he said. “The boy was supposed to have wandered off, but the door had a deadbolt that locked from the inside, and the boy couldn’t have unlocked that. (Mills) kept saying that he wasn’t in the house. We finally realized that is where he had to be.”

Armed with a search warrant, officers returned to the home, where they found the body.

Sullivan said he believes Mills and Cole hid the body in the ottoman because they did not expect to be arrested when they reported the child missing.

“I think they felt that after cursory checks, we would leave and they’d have a chance to dispose of him,” the sergeant said.