Day care driver gets 10 years’ probation for toddler’s death

St. Charles left 3-year-old in a van for 12 hours

Choking back tears, a remorseful Deborah St. Charles said Wednesday on the witness stand that she didn’t intend to leave 3-year-old Myles Hill in the day care van she was driving Aug. 7, 2017 — the same vehicle where he would be found dead from heat exposure hours later.

“I’m so sorry,” she said as the boy’s family wept in the courtroom’s gallery. “I truly apologize to the parents.”

Circuit Judge Renee A. Roche adjudicated the Orlando day care driver guilty of manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of Myles, who was left in a van for 12 hours outside Little Miracles Academy day care. The judge opted against giving 53-year-old St. Charles additional jail time and sentenced her to 10 years of supervised probation with credit for 177 days served in jail.

Jeffrey D. Deen, St. Charles’ defense attorney, apologized again on behalf of his client to the toddler’s family after the sentencing.

“Nobody wins,” he said. “This is a horrible accident. It’s a horrible tragedy.”

Police say St. Charles picked Myles up from his home around 7:40 a.m., court records show. The toddler was crying because he didn’t want to go, but later calmed down and fell asleep, according to other children who were inside the van.

St. Charles drove to the day care’s Colonial Drive location, where she dropped off the kids and some cleaning supplies. She told investigators she assumed all the children had gone inside the day care but failed to perform a head count and fill out a log.

St. Charles drove to the day care’s other location on Plymouth Avenue and parked the van. She said was on the phone when she got out, didn’t see any kids in the van and walked to her classroom.

When the day care didn’t drop Myles off at his great-grandmother’s house later that day, she called its director around 7 p.m to ask why the toddler wasn’t brought home. Myles was found dead in the van about 8:30 p.m.

At St. Charles’ sentencing, Myles’ grandfather Frank Bailey said he was raising the toddler as his own when the boy died just weeks shy of his fourth birthday.

“Myles’ death changed my life,” he said between sobs. “Myles was like a part of me.”