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A mother has been charged with manslaughter and endangering a child after her seven-year-old daughter drowned at a Long Island hotel while she was partying and drinking. Erica Baez was arrested two weeks after her daughter, Caitlin, died from sepsis as a complication from near-drowning at the Marriot hotel in Melville, where the family had stayed while Baez’s boyfriend was nearby on business. The hotel pool had no lifeguard but Baez allowed her daughter to use it unsupervised while she visited the hotel bar. Caitlin’s 5-month-old brother was left alone in another room while she was swimming.
she left the girl in the pool, and she drank and had fun
Bronx mother charged with second-degree manslaughter and endangering a child’s well-being after she vacationed at the Melville Marriot hotel in Long Island, drinking and partying while her 7-year-old daughter swam lifeless in the pool. And her 5-month-old son was alone in a room rented by the family. Writes about it NY Daily News.
Erica Baez, 41, was arrested by Suffolk County police two weeks after her daughter Caitlin died of sepsis, a complication after she nearly drowned on Jan. 13 in the pool of the Melville Marriot Hotel, according to District Attorney Raymond Tierney.
Baez stayed at the hotel while her boyfriend was working nearby. She asked the hotel staff to open the pool so Caitlin Pineda, her 7-year-old daughter, could play in the pool, although the staff warned her to stay close because there was no lifeguard on duty.
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Instead, Baez allowed the child to swim unsupervised while she drank cocktails and ordered food at the hotel’s restaurant, Tierney said. According to the prosecutor, she checked her daughter in half an hour and then went up to the hotel room, where her 5-month-old son was alone.
Baez then went downstairs and returned to the hotel bar, where she drank another drink for about half an hour. Mom went back to the pool to check on Caitlin, but the little girl had already drowned.
“When Baez returned and noticed her child floating lifelessly in the pool, she took off her shoes and socks and put her phone away before pulling her daughter out of the pool,” says Tierney.
Rescuers attempted to resuscitate the child, but the lack of oxygen to her brain left her in a vegetative state, unable to breathe or eat on her own for the next four months.
On May 1, Caitlin died of sepsis in a New Jersey hospital.
“The alleged actions of the defendant were selfish, senseless and heartless,” Tierney said. “We are going to do everything possible to ensure that justice is served for little Kathleen, whose short life was cut short too soon.”
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