How did child die at Homestead daycare? Three months later, cause still unknown
Three months after a nine-month-old infant was found dead at a Homestead daycare center, an attorney for the child’s parents released graphic video of daycare workers attempting to revive the child that they believe shows negligence on the part of the center and its employees.
In one of the edited trio of video clips, a daycare worker can be seen holding the unresponsive child almost upside down while patting him on the back repeatedly for about 30 seconds. All the infant is wearing is a white diaper. Two other brief clips, which are both less than 20 seconds long, show a woman walking and cradling the lifeless child and giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation a few times as she walks.
The family of Tayvon Tomlin, in a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court over the summer, accused the Lincoln Marti Community Agency and its workers of negligence, arguing there weren’t enough staff members, those who were there lacked training and that they left children unattended.
This week, however, Tayvon’s mother Keiara Whorley said her biggest issue was the lack of information the family was receiving from the center, daycare workers and even the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office.
“I’m always going to be frustrated, hurt, crying, missing my baby,” Whorley said Monday at her attorney’s downtown Miami office, in an interview done with WSVN Channel 7. “But right now, I have all the fight directed towards this case and finding out what’s going on.”
Calls to the attorneys representing the Lincoln-Marti daycare center were not returned Tuesday.
Several questions about the infant’s death linger, said attorney Michael Levine. The family, he said, hasn’t been able to determine how long it took Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to show up to the Homestead daycare. That’s because, Levine said, the camera in the room where Tayvon was discovered unresponsive was the only camera at the center that wasn’t working. Time stamps on the videos taken from a room the child was carried to show no more than a two-minute window before Miami-Dade Fire Rescue showed up, according to fire rescue records.
Even if the window was that short, fire rescue workers reported that Lincoln-Marti employees failed to give the child CPR and that paramedics were unable to revive nine-month-old Tayvon Tomlin through CPR or the use of a defibrillator once they arrived.
Tayvon was found lifeless, his eyes open, by a daycare worker in the early afternoon of July 18 at Lincoln-Marti Daycare, 510 Krome Ave. The child’s parents and other family members — who rushed to the scene — said the infant appeared “energetic” before he was dropped off at daycare that morning. His grandfather Sean Tomlin told the Miami Herald that he played with the child before he was taken to school.
Three months after Tayvon’s death, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner has yet to determine the cause and Miami-Dade Police continue to investigate possible criminal wrongdoing.
Taking three months or longer to determine a cause of death in these types of cases isn’t out of the ordinary, said Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Director of Operations Sandra Boyd. Though she wouldn’t directly address Tayvon’s case, Boyd said several factors, like a police investigation or toxicology reports, can delay determining a cause of death.
“It all plays a role in the final determination in the cause of death, whether it’s accidental or a homicide” she said. “Sometimes we get results that don’t have a determination and we have to re-test. The length of time is not unusual.”
And even the unlikely chance of a criminal charge is still hanging out there.
“The case is still pending,” said Miami-Dade Police Spokesman Angel Rodriguez. “The medical examiner is conducting further studies.”
In the August lawsuit filed by Whorley and Devonte Tomlin, the family said Lincoln-Marti’s negligence led to their son’s death.
The lawsuit, citing the Childcare Facility Handbook. which governs the laws and requirements for daycare centers in Florida, says the facility was understaffed the morning Tayvon died. While state rules call for one worker for every four children, the lawsuit says the day Tayvon died, a lone worker oversaw eight children.
The handbook also says a daycare worker must always be present when children are at a center. Whorley and Tayvon’s dad Devonte Tomlin claim in the lawsuit that there were times that day when the children were by themselves. The lawsuit asks for damages and reimbursement for funeral expenses.
“The folks who should be trained for an emergency,” said Levine, the family lawyer, “didn’t do anything adequate.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 4:21 PM.
