Fort Worth woman accused of endangering baby who died in her care

A woman who had twice been told by the state to stop running an illegal child-care center has been charged in the July death of a 9-month-old boy in her care.

Latoya Latrice Anderson, 25, was charged this month with abandoning/endangering a child, a state jail felony.

She is accused of placing Dacion Steptoe Jr. in imminent danger by leaving the sick baby facedown on a couch in an apartment with 10 other children — but no supervision.

On Wednesday, prosecutors also filed a misdemeanor charge of operating a child-care facility without a license, Tarrant County court records show.

Anderson called 911 on July 23 from her mother’s apartment in the 6700 block of Woodbridge Drive, reporting that a child she was baby-sitting was not breathing.

Dacion was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. A ruling on the cause and manner of death is still pending.

Anderson had twice been investigated and ordered by Child Care Licensing, a division of the Department of Family and Protective Services, to stop running an illegal child-care facility.

Though no other children were at the apartment when investigators arrived July 23, Anderson told police that she had been caring for five children at her mother’s apartment that day because her own apartment was being fumigated.

She later admitted to investigators that she had actually been watching 11 children, according to arrest warrant affidavits obtained by the Star-Telegram.

Anderson was arrested Sept. 9 and freed on $8,500 bail. Her attorney, Lesa Pamplin, said it is too early in the investigation to comment.

Anderson, who also uses the last name Samuel, did not return a Facebook message seeking comment.

On July 26 — three days after Dacion’s death — she posted a long message on Facebook saying she was sorry that Dacion was gone but insisting that she didn’t hurt him and that she gave him CPR to try to save him.

“I’ve heard that I am being thrown under the bus, I can understand because people are Angry they need someone to blame but God Knows, and all the Parents who’s ever trusted me with their children know that I am a Good Person all is do is Help, Help, Help. & I would never hurt a soul,” part of the message read.

An ‘affordable’ option

Julia Ruffin, Dacion’s mother, described him as an adventurous baby.

“He was on his way to walking because he wanted to keep up with his brother,” Ruffin said. “He would always crawl from room to room, wherever his brother went.”

But while his 2-year-old brother, Jaiden Angle, wouldn’t go near the sparklers she’d bought for July Fourth, Dacion — or “Deuce” — loved to play with them.

Unlike his brother, he also loved to swim.

“He would be laughing and be crying when I took him out of the pool,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin said she started taking her sons to Anderson, then operating from her unit at Cobb Park Apartments off East Berry Street, about a month before Dacion’s death. A close friend had recommended Anderson.

“I just needed someone who was affordable, who lived close by and who could go around my work schedule” and that of Dacion’s father, Ruffin said.

She said Anderson told her and other parents that she had a permit to run a child-care facility.

“The (CCL) worker said she had 20-plus kids at her house,” Ruffin said. “I didn’t even know there were that many kids there. Every time I picked my kids up, I’d only see, like, six other kids in the room with them.”

On the last morning when she dropped Dacion off, Ruffin said, she told Anderson that her son had a slight cold and a runny nose and asked her to give him juice instead of milk.

Ruffin said that despite having her and her boyfriend’s phone numbers, Anderson didn’t call but rather sent a Facebook message to tell her that Dacion had stopped breathing and that an ambulance had been called.

Ruffin said she didn’t see the message until 15 to 30 minutes after it had been sent. By the time Ruffin and her boyfriend made it to the hospital, Dacion was dead.

“At first, she said she was sorry, that she tried to save him by giving him CPR,” Ruffin said. “But then she tried to make it seem like it was my fault I sent my son to day care — to her — sick.”

A young witness

A 9-year-old boy — the oldest child in Anderson’s care that day — was later interviewed and gave this account:

The boy said Anderson placed Dacion on his stomach on the couch to sleep, covering his head and body with a towel.

The boy said that he had been asleep with other children in a backroom but that Anderson asked him to come to the living room because she wanted to get something to eat from Jack in the Box.

He said Anderson instructed him to lock the door and then left.

During her absence, the boy said, he checked on the other kids and changed his sister’s diaper and put her back to bed. He said he never saw Dacion move and never heard him cry.

When Anderson returned, the boy said, she sat on the couch and watched a show on her phone while she ate. She asked the boy to check on Dacion.

The boy said he couldn’t feel anything when he touched Dacion’s back, so he flipped the infant over and saw that his hands and face were gray. Feeling no heartbeat, the boy told Anderson that he thought Dacion was dead.

Anderson placed the infant on his back in her lap, and foam came from his mouth. In a panic, Anderson called a friend first and then an ambulance.

The friend, the boy said, came and took the other children to Anderson’s apartment.

Interview with the suspect

In an Aug. 27 interview with investigators, Anderson admitted that she had been caring for 11 children that day, not five.

She told investigators that she had been investigated twice since February and had been found “deficient” by Child Care Licensing for operating a child-care facility without a license.

“Anderson still does not have a license, but said she needed to make money,” Detective W.S. Adams wrote in the affidavit.

Anderson said Dacion’s mother had told her the baby was sick and should have only juice and water.

She said she didn’t think putting the congested baby facedown on the couch could constrain his breathing and denied covering the baby with a towel or anything else.

Anderson also denied going to a fast-food restaurant, saying she merely stood outside the apartment for seven to 10 minutes while she waited for her mother’s friend, known as “Q,” to bring her food.

She could not provide the friend’s full name or telephone number.

“I asked Anderson if she could see that these children were at substantial risk of harm, and she began to cry,” Adams wrote. “I told her while she may not have done something directly to Dacion, I believed that she placed the children in her care at risk.”

Previous investigations

Child Care Licensing first investigated Anderson in February for allegedly running a child-care business without a license.

Anderson admitted then to caring for 10 children inside her home, a one-bedroom apartment in the 5900 block of Callaston Lane.

The investigator, however, found 20 children in the apartment, ranging from school age to 3 months old. Fifteen of them were found sleeping inside the sole bedroom while three infants were asleep in car seats with a bottle propped up.

Anderson agreed in writing to cease operating the business and to care only for three unrelated children until she could obtain a permit, the affidavit says.

Child Care Licensing began investigating Anderson again April 1 after receiving a tip that she was caring for 45 children in the same apartment. Anderson allegedly used a Facebook page to advertise her business, called the “The Playground.”

When investigators returned to Anderson’s apartment, they found a sign on the door advertising her child-care business.

Anderson told investigators that she had 15 children in her care.

But investigators found 17, including a 4-month-old lying in the bed with seven other children, with a pillow on top and at risk of being “smashed.”

Two more children were dropped off while investigators were present, and five more were allegedly coming for after-school care, the affidavit says.

Anderson admitted that she had never stopped after the first state investigation.

Child Care and Licensing response

CCL spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said Child Care Licensing had gone back to Anderson’s apartment at least once after the first investigation but had found no children in her care.

After Anderson was found to be taking care of numerous children again in April, Gonzales said the investigators once more instructed her to stop.

“This time, they followed up three separate times — unannounced, of course,” Gonzales said. “Every time, the home was vacant. There was no one there. There was no children in care.”

Gonzales said CCL has no legal authority to impose penalties or fines for illegal child-care operations but could seek an injunction against the business if evidence points to a “continuing pattern.”

“We didn’t have any documented evidence she was still caring for children after having been instructed not to,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said CCL alerts police about an illegal child-care operation only if investigators suspect abuse or neglect.

One day after Dacion’s death, Child Care Licensing received information that Anderson was still running her day care off Berry Street. A CCL investigator went there and found 12 children inside.

Anderson could not initially be found but soon emerged from the bathroom.

She later admitted that she was hiding behind the shower curtain to avoid the investigator, the affidavit says.

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Fort Worth woman accused of endangering baby who died in her care."