A Florida woman was accused of starving her newborn twins, causing one of them to die from severe malnutrition. She was arrested on January 18, and charged with aggravated manslaughter and neglect of a child.
According to an arrest affidavit, police were called to the Boca Raton residence nearly a year ago, on March 17, 2022, alerted about a sick newborn. Law enforcement found Fire Rescue officers trying to save a one-month-old child. The baby was not breathing and didn’t have a pulse. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The baby’s mother, Delaila Pino LaSalle, 23, said that she found her daughter unresponsive when she woke up to feed her twins. LaSalle, a resident of Puerto Rico but living with her mother in Florida, has three other children. Upon discovery of the unresponsive child, she woke her mother up and 911 was called. Her mother attempted CPR on the baby.
Upon further investigation, police believed LaSalle was responsible for the child’s death. The baby was born with medical problems but recovered, and LaSalle was given instructions from the doctor how to care for the child. According to the police, LaSalle did not properly care for her after the baby’s initial recovery and didn’t follow the doctor’s instructions.
The twins were born on February 5, 2022. The child who died was born with a left cleft lip, upper respiratory distress, pneumonia, and a hole in her heart. She stayed in the NICU unit for a couple of weeks before doctors discharged her. She reportedly was doing well.
Doctors said that LaSalle did not show up for a follow-up appointment after the baby’s discharge.
One of the doctors explained that the newborn was admitted to the NICU ward because of respiratory issues, but she improved within a week. The baby was tube fed, but they started bottle-feeding her without any problems as she recovered. When the baby was discharged, she was breathing normally, eating and gaining weight.
According to the affidavit, the doctors at the hospital were concerned about the mother’s behavior, saying she refused to follow instructions.
The Florida medical examiner ruled the baby’s death a homicide, and that the cause of death was malnutrition. He ruled out the possibility of the child’s preexisting conditions causing her death.
A week after the girl’s death, the other twin, a boy, was admitted to the hospital and doctors determined that the baby was suffering from severe starvation. The Department of Children and Families removed all the children from home. The boy is doing much better in foster care.
LaSalle is held on an $18,000 bond and has not been released.