Trio Accused in Infant Death at Child Care Center Return to Court

The owner of a former San Rafael daycare facility where an infant died in October 2012 made a brief appearance in Marin Superior Court Tuesday morning to schedule a change of plea hearing. 

Claudia Gill, 44, the owner of Magic Place Children’s Center, on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after a four-month-old boy died under their supervision. The women, all Richmond residents, were released in November, pending further investigation of the incident that occurred at the Terra Linda daycare at 1055 Las Ovejas Ave.

All three women later pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges.

Deputy Public Defender Meredith McGuire could not be reached for comment on the scheduled change of plea hearing.

Gil pleaded not guilty to six counts of violating child care center licensing requirements, including failing to provide medical treatment, failing to provide direct visual supervision, false statements, failure to provide adequate staffing, allowing an employee to provide care without a criminal record clearance and failure to maintain equipment in safe condition.

In January, Alvarado pleaded not guilty to one count of failure to provide medical treatment and Huitron-Jiminez pleaded not guilty to charges of failure to provide direct visual supervision, false statements and failure to provide medical treatment.

Tuesday morning, Judge Andrew Sweet ordered all three women to appear in court on March 19, at 9 a.m., for a change of plea hearing.

The Marin County Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division's forensic examination and autopsy of the infant, who died Oct. 23 at Kaiser Hospital in San Rafael, determined that the baby’s cause of death was asphyxia due to suffocation, due to obstruction of the external airway by bedding. The manner of death was ruled accidental. 

San Rafael Police detectives and the State of California Community Care Licensing Division conducted concurrent investigations into the circumstances of the infant’s death.

The parents of the baby, David Hampp and Anne Garwood, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the defunct facility, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

Investigators from the Department of Social Services determined there was a roughly 30-minute delay in the women calling 911 after they found the boy not breathing, according to KTVU.

Social Services revoked the center’s license and banned the trio from working at licensed facilities, according to the IJ. 

-Bay City News contributed to this report