Article Courtesy of People
By KC Baker
Published September 12, 2019
A Florida mom and her
boyfriend are charged with aggravated
manslaughter after her two sons, age 5 and
6, drowned in a pool at their condo complex,
say police. Two young brothers died in May
when they ventured into a Florida pool and
drowned – and now their devastated mother
and her boyfriend are charged in their
deaths.
On May 22, at about
9:30 p.m., police were called to the Silver Palms
Condominiums in North Lauderdale after the bodies of Ja’Kye
Joseph, 6, and Branario Minto, 5, were found at the bottom
of an inground pool in the courtyard of the complex, the
Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a report obtained by
PEOPLE.
Upon seeing the boys submerged in the water, their frantic
mother and other relatives pulled them from the water and
began performing CPR as they called for help, the Broward
Sheriff’s Office says in the report.
The boys were unresponsive when first responders
arrived.BSO’s Child Protective Investigations Section
removed the victims’ 4-month-old and 1-year-old siblings
from the home as part of their investigation.
On Sept. 3, police arrested John Louis Lynn Jr., 24, of
Tamarac, and charged him with two counts of aggravated
manslaughter of a child, the report says.
Joseph was arrested on a warrant on Saturday at
approximately 1 a.m., September 7, by the Lauderhill Police
Department.
She is charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter of
a child.
Detectives said Joseph and Lynn failed to provide proper
care and supervision for the brothers, which made them
responsible for their deaths, the report says. |
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Ja'Kye Joseph, 6, and Branario Minto, 5.
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Lynn and Joseph are being held at the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail on
a $250,000 bond each.
They have not yet entered pleas. It is unclear whether they have retained
lawyers who can comment on their behalf.
North Lauderdale Fire Rescue transported the brothers to Northwest Medical
Center where they were pronounced dead.
The brothers had been submerged underwater for almost two hours before being
found, said detectives in the report.
The boys didn’t know how to swim, their mother, Wildline Liline Joseph, 23,
told ABC affiliate Local 10 News.
She said she was sleeping when she believes the pair snuck out, jumped the
pool fence and headed into the water.
When Joseph heard screams for help from neighbors, she raced to the pool to
try to save the boys, she told Local 10 News on the night they died.
“I tried all I can to do CPR!” she sobbed as she clung to the fence
surrounding the pool where her boys lost their lives. “It didn’t work!”
Still sobbing, Joseph told the outlet, “I will always miss my babies. I’m
sorry, Ja’Kye. I’m sorry, Branario.”
She paused and said, “They’re only 5 and 6.”
Surveillance video shows the victims “unsupervised and running to the pool
area at approximately 7:16 p.m.,” the sheriff’s office says in the
statement. |