Infant girl ‘killed by daycare worker’ who ‘smothered crying baby for being fussy’
A BABY girl was reportedly killed at a daycare center by a young woman accused of smothering the infant for being "fussy".
Little Isabella Talton died on Sept. 5, 2019 at The Little People Child Development Center in after she was allegedly suffocated by Dejoynay Mariah Ferguson.
Video surveillance appears to have captured the 19-year-old childcare worker being rough with the four-month-old girl.
In the footage obtained by , Ferguson was shown picking up Isabella by the front of her shirt and placing her on a changing table.
Moments later, Ferguson is seen putting her hands on the baby's face for more than three minutes, after which Isabella became "unresponsive and motionless", according to a lawsuit filed on Monday by Isabella's parents, Amanda Livingston and Cadell Talton.
At the time, Ferguson told cops she suffocated the infant because the girl had been "fussy" and wouldn't stop crying.
But she later confessed to the killing after police confronted her with the surveillance footage of the alleged abuse.
The state immediately shut down The Little People following Isabella's death, but allowed the daycare center to reopen less than three weeks later.
Prosecutors have not yet indicted Ferguson, who was in September.
The lawsuit filed by Isabella's grieving parents alleges that the facility didn't "properly supervise, manage, oversee, and ensure safety for the children."
It also alleges The Little People "had a history of negligent and/or reckless and/or wanton conduct
Although Ferguson had passed a background check, her childcare experience and prior qualifications haven't been made public, according to the newspaper.
State records obtained by The News Journal show 26 complaints filed against The Little People between 2008 and September 2019.
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But state officials only substantiated two of those claims, the outlet reported.
The facility had passed a state inspection in May 2019 with a five-star rating - the highest mark possible, according to the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families website.
The Little People appears to be closed based on comments left on the daycare center's Yelp page.