The woman accused of leaving a child inside a daycare van in Orlando will stay in jail after a judge denied her request to be released.
Deborah St. Charles, 51, was arrested on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child in mid-August, Orlando police said, after 3-year-old Myles Hill died after being left in a hot van for 12 hours.
More than a month later, St. Charles filed a motion to be released from jail—after failing to have her $30,000 bail reduced—since prosecutors had failed to file formal charges.
Shortly after she filed the motion, prosecutors formally charged her with aggravated manslaughter in connection with Hill’s death.
In the charging documents, prosecutors said St. Charles failed to make a reasonable effort to protect Myles Hill with the care and supervision and services to maintain his physical and mental health.
St. Charles is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, where she will be arraigned on the formal charges.
The Department of Children is still investigating Hill’s death and more arrests are possible, officials said.
St. Charles was a child care personnel/school readiness employee at Little Miracles Academy, DCF said.
Myles Hill was found dead in a van at the Little Miracles Academy. Hill's cause of death was hyperthermia due to environmental exposure and the manner of death as accident.
A spokesperson for DCF said St. Charles was "not approved as a driver on the facility's roster."
Police said St. Charles got out of the van twice without checking for the toddler.
The second time she got out of the van, St. Charles answered a phone call while she was getting her belongings out of the vehicle, police said.
She did not check the interior of the van, investigators said.
Investigators said the boy's guardian called to talk about a school uniform, but no one noticed the boy wasn't home.
The guardian called the day care at about 8 p.m. and then called 911. Police found Myles' body in the van 30 minutes later.
Temperatures inside the van were as high as 144 degrees at 3 p.m., investigators said.
During a news conference, Audrey Thornton, the day care owner, told reporters that she was sorry and that the boy's death was a mistake.
"I'm so sorry. I took care of my kids. I did what I could do to provide for them and teach them every day," said Thornton.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said Wednesday that while it appears to be an accident, there must be accountability. Sheaffer said charges could include manslaughter or child neglect by a caregiver.
"Unless you can show there was some intentional act here, those are probably the two charges the state attorney's office would consider in this case," Sheaffer said.
DCF shut down both day care locations of Little Miracles Academy shortly after Hill's death.
The owner of the day care said that St. Charles has been fired.
"I loved Myles, and I took care of Myles since he was a baby," Thornton said.
Cox Media Group
