Mother whose child died won’t be charged

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Prosecutors will not press charges against the mother of a toddler who died after being left alone in a hot car, making her the second local parent to avoid criminal charges despite being responsible for the death of a child who was unattended in a vehicle.

District Attorney David Roger said Monday that prosecutors decided not to levy criminal charges against 22-year-old Latasha Raynor after meeting with Metro investigators.

"Investigators concluded there was no evidence to suggest that Ms. Raynor willingly left her child in the vehicle," he said. "Therefore, state statute does not provide for the prosecution of this case."

Authorities said Raynor picked up her friend's child and brought her to her apartment in the 2700 block of Rainbow Boulevard, forgetting that her own daughter, 2-year-old Shyann, was still inside the car.

One of the other children alerted Raynor about two hours later, police said.

Prosecutors also declined to file criminal charges against David Fish in connection with the June death of his 7-month-old son.

The boy died after Fish, a high school teacher, left him in a hot van for more than eight hours while he was at work. Fish told police he'd forgotten to drop his son off at day care after he changed his daily routine.

Roger said neither Raynor nor Fish intentionally left the child in the vehicle. Nevada's neglect statute states that the act must be intentional, he said.

"I'm sure there are factual differences," he said. "But the final outcome is the same. She did not intentionally leave her child in the car to die and neither did he."

But prosecutors have levied child abuse and neglect charges against at least five other parents who have left their children alone in cars within the past few months. None of those children was seriously injured.

Won Chong was charged with child neglect after he left his sleeping child in a car while he went into a Starbucks to get coffee.

Chong is scheduled to have his preliminary hearing -- the first of any of the parents' -- later this week.

When asked if parents could simply claim they forgot their children in the car to avoid prosecution, Roger said, "We trust that law enforcement will conduct its own investigations to ferret out such cases."

Roger said prosecutors "have to consistently apply the law" to cases presented to them, even if the outcome appears unfair.

"We have always applied the law the in the same manner with respect to these cases," he said. "The bigger issue is when are parents going to get the message that they have to pay close attention to the well-being of their children?"

According to a police report obtained by the Sun, Raynor called 911 and reported that Shyann was having difficulty breathing and was unconscious. She told police she had put the child in a cold shower after she discovered she'd left the child in the car.

In a voluntary statement to police, Raynor said she was at Christin Grudier's, home when Grudier called her and asked her to pick up her 8-year-old daughter from school.

Raynor said she picked up the child from school and when they arrived at Grudier's home she and the child went into the apartment.

Raynor said she did not think about her daughter being missing because five other children in the apartment were in a bedroom playing. Among the children was Raynor's 6-year-old son, Kyle.

When another child realized Shyann was missing about two hours later, Raynor said, she asked the other children where the child was. Grudier's daughter replied that Shyann was "in the car," according to the report.

Raynor told police that she ran out to the car and discovered that the car seat "was tipped over" and that Shyann "was found face down on the backseat."

Raynor then rushed the child into the house, put the child in the shower and called 911, she said.

When patrol officers and medical personnel arrived at the scene, they transported the toddler to University Medical Center, where Shyann was "suffering from severe symptoms related to heat stroke" and "was in extremely critical condition."

Shyann was then transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Grudier corroborated Raynor's story, saying she had asked Raynor to pick up her daughter from school. She said she believed that Raynor "would have been in a hurry due to the fact she had told her that (her daughter) would be standing outside the school."

She said she "surmised that (Raynor) took Shynann with her because (Shyann) would cry when her mother would leave her."

Grudier's 17-year-old nephew told police he was outside when Raynor returned. He said the car had the windows rolled up when Raynor and Grudier's daughter exited the vehicle and that the two entered the apartment alone.

The officer issued a warrant for Raynor's arrest, noting that Raynor was responsible for the safety and welfare of Shyann and "permitted her child to be placed in a situation where the child's safety and welfare was threatened."

The officer noted that Raynor's actions "amounted to a neglect of responsibility in attending to the care, control and custody of her minor child."

Roger said he hopes the media attention surrounding the cases of children left in cars will encourage more parents to take seriously the dangers of leaving their children unattended.

"With all the media attention, there has to be at least some parents thinking twice about maintaining contact with their kids throughout the day," he said.