Police: Woman spit on newborn infant's mother, brandished knife

Douglas Walker | The Star Press

MUNCIE, Ind. – A Muncie woman who allegedly spit in the face of a mother – in the presence of her newborn infant – while brandishing a knife can thank social media for her Friday arrest.

Yorktown police on Friday afternoon arrested Kinsey V. Robinson, 26, on preliminary charges of battery by bodily waste and intimidation with a deadly weapon.

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Authorities said the mother – who on June 2 had given birth, five weeks before her due date, to a little girl named Maudie Mae – was driving her daughter to a medical appointment about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and was traveling cautiously, particularly over the railroad tracks on Nebo Road south of Kilgore Avenue.

Her rate of speed apparently enraged the driver behind her, who began to tailgate the mother’s vehicle.

At the intersection with Kilgore, a passenger in the other vehicle – later identified as Robinson – got out, walked to the driver's side of the mother’s car, and spit in her face.

The baby, in an infant seat, was not hit by the saliva.

Upon learning of the incident, Stacey Marlow – mother of the driver and grandmother of Maudie Mae – promptly recounted the story in a Facebook posting, asking for help in tracking down the spitter.

Nearly 2,000 Facebook users shared the post, and that led to numerous tips, including the one leading to Robinson’s Friday arrest, Yorktown Police Chief Todd St. John said.

“The public is outraged,” Marlow said of the quick response her Facebook post prompted.

St. John said while being questioned by Yorktown police, Robinson – who lives on Muncie’s northwest side – admitted spitting on the other woman, and also acknowledged she was holding a knife in her left hand at the time.

Marlow said after the stress of the baby’s early arrival, the incident had left her daughter, named Presley, “very nervous, very cautious.”

“I can’t believe somebody would stoop that low,” she said. “She knew my daughter had an infant in her car.”

News of Friday’s arrest brought some “relief” to the family, she added.

Marlow said Presley would undergo blood tests as a precaution.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.