John Jefferson
Left: mother Michelle Doe (Broward County Jail). Right: Deonte Atwell (GoFundMe).
After a 7-year-old with spina bifida and in need of “around-the-clock” care, a feeding tube, and breathing tube was pronounced dead in Florida on Christmas Day, two days after his birthday, weighing just seven pounds, prosecutors allege that the boy’s own mother, brother, grandfather, a home care business owner, and a nurse are all to blame for the victim’s starvation — and four of the five defendants are accused of murder to varying degrees.
After Deonte Atwell’s death, some “264 unopened bottles” of “feeding formula” were found inside of his Fort Lauderdale home on Southwest 11th Street, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office said Wednesday when announcing the serious charges against his mother, 37-year-old Michelle Doe, his brother, 21-year-old Tyreck Irvin, his grandfather, 70-year-old James Graham, and two home care defendants, 33-year-old nurse Cassandre Lassegue and 47-year-old Samaritin Home Care Provider, Inc. owner Mirlande Moltimer.
Authorities said that the evidence shows Atwell’s “bones were protruding through gaping holes in his skin,” that he “died of severe malnutrition,” that he died “during a scheme to defraud Medicaid” of more than $10,000 not more than $50,000, and that he may have been “dead for quite some time” before a 911 call reporting “respiratory distress” was made at night on Christmas.
“The victim was diagnosed at birth as a ‘medically complex child’ with thoracic spina bifida and hydrocephalus, he had a breathing tube and feeding tube and required around-the-clock skilled nursing care,” prosecutors noted, while emphasizing that there were a;;aged;y “264 unopened bottles” of formula at the residence.
Doe, who in January started a GoFundMe saying that her “baby son passed away at the age of 7 due to his birth defects” and a challenging life, is now accused of crimes that could put her in prison for the rest of her life or worse upon conviction.
She is charged with first-degree murder, a capital felony, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter in the death of a child, and for neglecting 9- and 16-year-old boys. While Atwell’s brother, Tyreck Irvin, faces the same charges, his grandfather is accused at most of aggravated manslaughter, child neglect, and failure to report abuse, so unlike his co-defendants, he was given a $22,000 bond.
Left: Atwell’s brother Tyreck Irvin. Right: Atwell’s grandfather James Graham (Broward County Jail).
The two home care defendants, however, are each accused of third-degree felony murder, Medicaid provider fraud, child neglect, and aggravated manslaughter, that latter of which is punishable by up to three decades behind bars upon conviction.
Lassegue is additionally charged with first-degree murder, as detectives reportedly allege that the victim was neglected over a period of six months to a year and that the nurse, at one point, stopped going to the home even as she claimed to have done so in writing.
Left: Mirlande Moltimer. Right: Cassandre Lassegue (Broward County Jail).
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