Chester County nanny pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 3-year-old boy’s drowning
The boy's mother said in a letter to the judge that her family has forgiven Imani Lewis, and said they believe she "wanted to help and made an awful mistake."
A nanny whose inattentiveness led to the drowning death of a 3-year-old boy in her care at a park in Tredyffrin Township pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter.
Imani Lewis, 28, was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in jail, but was released on time served after spending 188 days in custody since her September arrest. The negotiated plea was made with the blessing of the boy’s family, who said in a letter to Chester County Court Judge Anne Marie Wheatcraft that they had forgiven Lewis and do not blame her for what happened.
They said they wanted to move past the tragedy of their loss and resolve the case without the trauma of a trial.
“Since I got that fateful call, my entire existence has fallen apart, and I have struggled with every emotion that any human, any mother can ever imagine when their worst nightmare comes to pass,” the boy’s mother wrote in her letter. “But what I want to communicate is that in the midst of all this, in my core, I still truly believe that Imani wanted to help and made an awful mistake.”
Wheatcraft, in handing down the sentence, told Lewis she could see the nanny was remorseful and wished her well.
Because of her conviction, Lewis, a Jamaican national who came to America on a student visa, has a detainer for deportation from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to evidence presented in court Thursday.
Lewis’ attorney, Christopher Nelson, said he hoped the sentencing in what he described as a tragic case would “begin to bring closure for everyone involved.”
In an interview Thursday, Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said he was relieved Lewis accepted responsibility by pleading guilty. She was sentenced, he said, “along the wishes of the family.”
“Obviously we’re not just obligated under the law, but also obligated morally, to seek the input of victims of crime,” he said. “Now, we’re hoping they can do what they need to do to heal going forward. No one should ever have to lose a child like this.”
Tredyffrin Township police responded to Wilson Farm Park on Sept. 2 after Lewis called 911 to report that the 3-year-old, nonverbal boy in her care was missing, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
She told police she last saw the child near a playground and had gone to pick up his shoes, which he had removed. When she returned to the nearby bench she had been sitting on, she could no longer see the boy, the affidavit said.
Officers found the boy unresponsive and floating face up in a 16-inch-deep stormwater retention pond a few hundred feet from the playground. He was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s King of Prussia campus, where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from the park recorded the child walking off the playground and climbing through a split-rail fence surrounding the pond, the affidavit said. Lewis, on a bench about 90 feet away, did not appear to notice.
The boy is seen running downhill toward the pond, and out of the camera’s view about a minute later. Moments later, Lewis looked up, noticed the child was missing, and began walking around the playground area while using her cell phone, according to the affidavit.
Lewis did not call 911 until about 50 minutes after the child climbed through the fence, police said.
From the time she arrived at the park until she made that call, Lewis was on her cell phone, making calls, sending texts, and browsing the internet, according to the affidavit.
Tredyffrin Detective Michael Cermignano wrote in the court filing that the child “required reasonable and vigilant supervision while at the park” because of his developmental ability, and that Lewis had a legal obligation to protect him.