11-4504 JANNETTE RAMOS, v. STATE OF FLORIDA

State: Florida

Court: Florida First District Court

Docket No: 11-4504

Case Date: 06/14/2012

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA JANNETTE RAMOS, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. _____________________________/ Opinion filed June 14, 2012. An appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County. Hon. Russell L. Healey, Judge. Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and David P. Gauldin, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant. Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Giselle D. Lylen, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee. NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED CASE NO. 1D11-4504

MAKAR, J. Jannette Ramos appeals her conviction and sentence for aggravated manslaughter of a child following the drowning death of her infant son in a retention pond close to her apartment. We affirm.

The only issue meriting discussion is whether the totality of Ramos's acts, and failures to act, establish the culpable negligence necessary to sustain her conviction for manslaughter of a child.1 Florida imposes upon parents the responsibility to supervise and protect their children who are too young to care for themselves. Machin v. Walgreen Co., 835 So. 2d 284 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). Here, the legal responsibility for the care of the youngest of Ramos's five children, Nathan Cook, nineteen months old at the time he drowned, fell squarely upon her as his immediate caregiver. Mere negligence in the care of one's young child doesn't necessarily amount to culpable negligence. Things happen in the care of young children that are unexpected even by experienced parents; a one-time accident or misfortune that could not be reasonably expected to result in serious harm, without more, does not generally transform a parent into a culpably negligent criminal. 2 Close legal questions arise,

Manslaughter is committed by act, by procurement, or by culpable negligence.

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