Woman charged with neglect after nephew’s death
A woman who was at her Margate home with her 2-year-old nephew and her great grandmother was arrested after the elder apparently left a sliding glass door open and the baby drowned in a pool.
When Gequinta Williams accidentally dozed off on July 17, the toddler was with her on a bed, watching television. When Williams, 27, woke, she found the rear sliding glass door open and the baby’s body in the pool, a Margate police report said.
Investigators found that the great grandmother has dementia, had previously opened the sliding door and wandered off and her history was known to Williams, according to the report.
Police said Williams was the only adult at the home at the time who was capable of supervising and caring for the great grandparent and the baby, and referred the case to the Broward state attorney’s office for review.
On Nov. 2, a prosecutor charged Williams with neglect of a child with great bodily harm, and she was arrested Tuesday.
Williams now lives in North Lauderdale with her mother and brother who is the father of the deceased boy. She does not have a criminal history and works as a porter at a car dealer in Coral Springs.
During a court hearing Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Hector Romero described the boy’s death as a “tragic, tragic accident.”
Williams wiped away tears as the lawyer described her family and financial circumstances. Romero said detectives referred Williams to grief counseling, and she was also supposed to start therapy this week.
Broward County Judge Kim Theresa Mollica said the case had “really sad circumstances” and set a $2,500 bond.
Williams’ nephew was one of 86 children who drowned in the state this year, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
That number of child drownings is the highest in the past five years. There were 82 children who died in water in 2017; 74 who perished in 2016, 85 drowned in 2015 and in 2014, there were 73 water deaths.