19 July 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT)- A young, Topeka mother is pleading for justice and for the public’s help after her two-month-old son was killed July 14.
27 News evening anchor McKenzi Davis sat down with Toyana Taylor-Adams for an exclusive interview where she describes what her son was like and what happened the night he died.
“I fell in love,” Taylor-Adams recalled about her son, Alonzoe Smith. “It was like love at first sight. Nothing else mattered in the world. Our bond was something special.”
“He was very content,” she continued. “I mean, I had sleepless nights, but we all do. He was my twin. He looked just like me. I didn’t get that much time with him… two months.”
During the stormy night on July 14, Taylor-Adams was at her central Topeka apartment with Alonzoe when she said his father, Alfred Smith, showed up outside of her window asking to come inside. Taylor-Adams said she let him in and stepped outside to tell a friend and a cousin Alonzoe’s dad was visiting. She said she hadn’t seen Smith since he left her and Alonzoe at the hospital a couple days after he was born.
“I didn’t even make it back upstairs,” she said. “I heard a gunshot.”
She said she tried to get back into the apartment after hearing what she believes was a gunshot.
“Alfred comes running down the stairs with my son in his arms,” Taylor-Adams recalled tearfully. “With blood every where, and he passes my baby to me like he’s sleep.”
She said she didn’t see a gun on Smith and she didn’t even know he was coming to visit.
“I’m just so sorry,” she said. “I was gone for two seconds, and I never expected any of this. Like, I left him in the hands of his dad. I regret letting him in, especially because he hasn’t been there. He left us when he was two days old.”
Topeka Police said as of July 18, they are looking for Alfred Smith, 29, in connection to this crime. Police can not locate him. They said he was last seen leaving in a turquoise Jeep. That’s why Taylor-Adams is pleading for the community’s help.
“I want justice,” she said through tearful eyes. “I want him found. I need to know what happened, because only he knows. It was his weapon. And for him to be running, that is guilty to me cause any real man would have stayed with his baby.”
Taylor-Adams only got two months with her son, but in that time, she said they created a bond that couldn’t be broken.
“He didn’t deserve this,” she said.
With an unexpected situation like this happening, she wasn’t prepared for the cost of burying her baby. She also doesn’t have the extra funds to move out of the apartment where she said there’s still blood. A GoFundMe has been set up to help her through this process.
“I have a good support system,” she said. “I have my moments, but I just try to keep my head up because what good am I behind bars?”
As for her son, Taylor-Adams said she will miss Alonzoe looking up at her as she held him. But for now, she wants justice for her baby boy.
“I miss him so much,” she said.
If you have any information about where Smith is, contact police. You can call them at 785-368-9400. You can also contact Shawnee County Crime Stoppers with an anonymous tip at 785-234-0007.