After Her 2 Young Sons Drowned in a Condo Complex Pool, Fla. Mom Is Charged With Manslaughter

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.

Ja'Kye Joseph, 6, and Branario Minto, 5.



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.

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