Grand jury declines to indict Fort Worth woman in baby’s death

A 25-year-old woman accused of running an illegal child-care operation despite being told twice by the state to stop no longer faces trial in the case of a 9-month-old boy who died in her care.

A Tarrant County grand jury declined Friday to indict Latoya Latrice Anderson on a felony charge of abandoning/endangering a child.

Anderson’s attorney, Lesa Pamplin, called it a “good day.”

“She didn’t do anything to cause the infant’s death and the grand jury did the right thing,” Pamplin said. “I’m glad she’s been vindicated. She got portrayed in not the best of light, but it’s going to be good news for her.”

On July 23, Anderson was caring for 11 children in her mother’s apartment in the 6700 block of Woodbridge Drive in the Woodhaven neighborhood. Anderson was accused of placing Dacion Steptoe Jr., who was sick, in imminent danger by leaving him face down on a couch while she left the apartment. No other adults were there.

An investigators said in an arrest warrant affidavit that a 9-year-old boy at the apartment said that Anderson had asked him to sit in the living room while she ran to a fast-food restaurant. Anderson denied leaving to get food, telling investigators that she stood outside the apartment for seven to 10 minutes waiting for her mother’s friend to bring her food.

After going back inside, Anderson called 911 after finding Dacion was not breathing. The infant was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

When she was charged in September with abandoning/endangering a child, a ruling on the cause and manner of Dacion’s death was still pending.

The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office later ruled Dacion’s death as natural and caused by sudden infant death syndrome.

Even if Anderson left the apartment for a few minutes, Pamplin said, “that was not the cause of that infant’s death. The baby died of SIDS.”

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.

A misdemeanor charge of operating a child care facility without a license is still pending against Anderson.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Grand jury declines to indict Fort Worth woman in baby’s death."