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NATCHEZ — A Natchez man has been indicted in the June 2019 murder of a 4-year-old girl and the abuse of her and her 3-year-old sister.

James Christopher Anderson, 25, faces one charge of capital murder in the death of Armani Hill and two charges of felonious child abuse for Hill and her 3-year-old sister.

Anderson is tentatively set to go to trial at 9 a.m. Jan. 25 in Adams County Circuit Court.

When Anderson was arrested in June 2019, Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong said the children’s mother LaKeshia Jones left her children in Anderson’s care while she was at work and told investigators the children were fine when she left the residence that morning.

Later that day, Anderson walked with the girls a quarter of a mile from the residence on Lafayette Street to Holiday Apartments, Armstrong said, during which time the girls were badly injured and one of them had trouble walking.

At approximately 11 a.m., Armstrong said Natchez police officers responded to an ambulance call at 601 Washington Road, where they stopped a private vehicle carrying what appeared to be a very sick child.

Armstrong said Hill had been moved from a private vehicle to an ambulance and both girls were then transported to Merit Health Natchez hospital in separate vehicles.

Adams County Coroner James Lee pronounced Hill dead at the hospital at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday and the 3-year-old girl was transported to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson with severe injuries where she was treated and later released.