A woman has pleaded guilty to the death of an infant who suffocated in a beanbag chair at her unlicensed day care center in Hemet.
Denise Worman entered an involuntary manslaughter plea Thursday. She’ll be sentenced to 180 days in a work release program.
Investigators say two years ago, Worman was caring for 7-month-old Addison Watkins and her 3-year-old brother at her home in Hemet.
Worman put them on a beanbag chair and walked away before returning a half-hour later to find the infant face down in the chair with her brother on top of her, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported, citing a Hemet Fire Department report.
The child went into cardiac arrest and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
During sentencing in a Banning courtroom, Worman apologized to the family after the girl’s mother, Kristin Watkins, told Worman that her negligence had ruined her life.
The Watkins family had been leaving their son for day care at the home for years, according to a GoFundMe page that raised money for the child’s funeral expenses.
Watkins posted on Facebook in 2017 saying that her daughter’s death left her feeling “broken, shattered, purposeless.”
“I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I am left with a lifelong sentence of pain and heartache yet the person responsible for your loss just keeps getting extensions and extensions enjoying her family at home,” the mother wrote online.
