Levi Ellerbe’s alleged killer Felicia Smith, top right, will now stand trial for his murder in January 2021. Levi’s mother Hanna Barker, bottom right, will also stand trial at a date yet to be decided

A suspected killer accused of burning her girlfriend’s baby son to death to please her lover will finally stand trial for murder in January 2021.

Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith’s trial date for the July 2018 killing of six month-old Levi Nicole Ellerbe, was announced during a procedural hearing in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on Tuesday, although prosecutors have yet to agree whether she should face the death penalty if convicted.

Smith’s girlfriend Hanna Nicole Barker – Levi’s mother – will be tried separately to Smith on the same first-degree murder charge, and faces being executed if convicted, the Alexandria Town Talk reported.

After Levi was snatched, Barker initially claimed her baby son was kidnapped by two people who knocked on her door, sprayed her face with pepper spray then ran off.




She dialed 911 to report the alleged kidnapping.

Levi was found set alight by the side of a railroad track in July 2018, and died of his burns the next day

A woman who was driving home from work spotted a fire on a nearby hill next to a railroad track an hour later, and also called police.

Levi was rescued from the pyre, but suffered third-degree burns to 90% of his body, and died the next day.

During a September 2018 court hearing, a local Fire Marshall lieutenant told a judge that Barker and Smith were girlfriends, but that Smith was more interested in pursuing the relationship than Barker.

Barker is said to have told officials that she was only with Smith for attention and cash, and that she had asked her girlfriend to kill Levi.

Barker’s attorneys say there is no evidence to prove that allegation, and no motive for Barker wanting to have Levi killed has ever been given.

She was on probation for earlier drugs offenses at the time, and is said to have breached its terms by having Smith at her home.

Barker had been due to stand trial in January this year, but the court has yet to agree on a possible start date for her trial.