Judge cites lack of evidence in acquitting babysitter in toddler’s death
Maria Sosa cleared but judge refuses to call drowning of Allison Tucker an accident
A babysitter who was on trial for killing a toddler in her care has been found not guilty of manslaughter.
In a Jan. 8 ruling, Justice Gary Trotter said he refuses to call the child’s death an “accident,” but that the evidence against Maria Sosa, the accused babysitter, wasn’t strong enough for a conviction.
Sosa was caring for Allison Tucker in July 2013 when the child was left alone in the bathtub and later found lying on her back and vomiting.
First responders arrived within minutes but were unable to revive the child. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, just a month shy of her third birthday.
A forensic pathologist was unable to determine what killed her.
During the trial, the Crown alleged that Sosa caused Allison’s death by either assaulting her or leaving her alone in the bathtub for too long and allowing her to drown.
“Allison Tucker’s death is an unspeakable tragedy. We will probably never know how this little girl died,” Trotter wrote in his trial decision.
“There are too many unanswered questions in this case for me to be sure.”
Through her lawyer, Breese Davies, Sosa declined to comment on the verdict.
“We are very obviously pleased with the outcome,” Davies wrote in an emailed statement. “This was an unbelievably difficult case for all involved. In the end, Justice Trotter came to the right conclusion based on the evidence that was called. That does not, however, take away from the unspeakable tragedy of the situation.”
The Star was unable to reach Allison’s parents for comment. The child’s grandfather declined to speak on behalf of the family.
According to the summary of facts and evidence from the trial that are outlined in Trotter’s decision, Sosa met Allison’s mother, Amanda Tucker, at work.
After Sosa had her second child, she stayed home to care for her kids and began babysitting Allison at her apartment on Sheppard Ave. W.
On July 4, 2013, Tucker dropped Allison off at Sosa’s apartment and went to work. Shortly after 11 a.m., Tucker texted Sosa to check on her daughter. Sosa responded that they were going to the park.
Trotter said what happened next is known only through Sosa’s statements, which he said contain “inconsistencies and peculiarities.”
Before they left for the park, Allison wet her pants and Sosa removed the child’s clothes and put her in the bathtub, the decision says.
Sosa said she left Allison in the tub to go grab clean clothes, and that she was only alone for about one minute — a claim that was overheard by several paramedics who testified at the trial, while a first responder who had spoken with Sosa later claimed on an incident report that she was told the child was left alone for 10 minutes.
Trotter concluded that the first responder likely conflated Sosa’s oneminute claim with her estimate that it had been 10 minutes since she had last seen Allison in a normal state. He said the evidence does not prove that Allison was left in the tub for “more than a short period of time, perhaps around a minute.”
When Sosa came back, the child was on her back with her mouth and nose above water, and was vomiting while dark discharge came out of her nose, the decision says.
The trial decision describes how, after discovering the toddler in the bathtub, Sosa called her partner, Martin Amado, who cried out that they call 911. Sosa made the call from a landline in another room and told the operator Allison was unconscious and having trouble breathing. The operator demanded that Sosa bring the child closer to the phone and Sosa told her to send somebody because she “can’t do this on the phone.”
Trotter wrote that “unfathomably, she hung up.” The operator called back on Sosa’s cellphone, which was answered by Amado.
The operator instructed him on how to perform CPR, which he did until paramedics arrived a few minutes later.
Dr. Michael Pollanen, a forensic pa- thologist who testified at the trial, said he found bruising on the back of the child’s head as well as on her neck, and that there was water in her lungs, Trotter’s decision says.
“As Dr. Pollanen said,” Trotter wrote, “someone could have killed Allison, or her death could have been accidental.”
Trotter found there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude that Allison drowned, or when and how she incurred the injuries to her neck and head.
“The evidence falls short and does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Sosa was the factual or legal cause of Allison’s death,” Trotter wrote.