Hurt girl not helped quickly, police report
Day-care worker admits striking child who died, authorities say
01/31/2000
By Drake Witham / The Dallas Morning News
HURST - An 18-year-old day-care employee who police said struck and killed a 2-year-old girl last week continued to pick up toys before attempting to revive her and calling for assistance.
Jeremy Phillip Mercier is being held in the Hurst Jail on capital-murder charges in the death of Megan Elizabeth Godley.
Hurst Detective Rick Shelby said Mr. Mercier, an employee at the Fun 4 Kids Child Development Center, admitted taking out his frustrations by striking the girl Tuesday. Mr. Mercier turned himself in to police at 6 p.m. Saturday and is being held in lieu of $150,000 bond.
Megan, who suffered multiple head trauma, was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth on Tuesday. She died at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday.
"He said he had a rough day and took out all of his frustrations on her," Detective Shelby said Sunday. "In 10 years in police work, this is perhaps the most tragic thing in my experience."
Mr. Mercier, who lives in the 300 block of Arthur Drive, was alone in a classroom with 16 children between the ages of 2 and 4 Tuesday afternoon, Detective Shelby said. He was showing the children a video and Megan was sitting with him in a chair. He began picking up toys and Megan followed him, asking to be held, police said.
"She was being very persistent, poking him, saying, 'Hold me, hold me,' " Detective Shelby said.
Mr. Mercier then shoved the girl, Detective Shelby said.
"She struck her head on a wooden cabinet, went soaring through the air, according to his statement, and hit her head on a wooden table before falling to the floor," Detective Shelby said.
Police said Mr. Mercier continued to pick up toys while Megan lay slumped under a table where she landed. When she did not move, he slapped her face lightly five times and then harder a sixth time in an attempt to revive her, Detective Shelby said.
Employees of the day-care center, at 306 E. Pecan St., called 911 at 5:50 p.m. and said Megan was suffering a seizure, police said.
Mr. Mercier initially told police that Megan had fallen but later said he struck her, police said.
Officials with the day-care center could not be reached Sunday.
Robert and Victoria Godley, Megan's parents, were in Kentucky on Sunday for the funeral, police said. They could not be reached for comment. A neighbor described Megan as "a very lovable baby."
"She was just a good baby," Shirley Gambaro said. "She was very close to her dad. They had a special bond."
Ms. Gambaro, a frequent baby sitter for Megan, said she and other neighbors at the Sequoin Bend Townhouses in the 600 block of Brown Trail Road were in shock.
"This still hasn't sunk in," she said.
Megan was the Godleys' only child, Ms. Gambaro said.
She said she hoped that a memorial service planned for February in Hurst would bring some closure to the incident.
The day-care center, a few hundred yards from the apartment complex, opened in February 1999; Megan was the first child at the day care and often spent 10 hours a day there, police said. There are no charges against the day-care center, but the investigation is ongoing, police said.
Mr. Mercier started working at the day-care center in June as a maintenance man and helper who performed duties such as getting extra diapers for children, police said. He left in December and returned in early January, when he was permitted to be in a classroom alone with children, police said.
Mr. Mercier attended L.D. Bell High School in Hurst but did not graduate, police said. He told investigators that he had not earned a General Educational Development certificate.
Police said he has no criminal record. Mr. Mercier was charged with capital murder - because the girl was younger than 6 years old - and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.
The case will be presented to the Tarrant County district attorney's office Monday or Tuesday, and Mr. Mercier will be transferred to the Tarrant County Jail, police said.
Day-Care Worker Testifies About Alleged
Abuse
By Patricia Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 23, 1999; Page B04
Two Arlington home day-care providers routinely force-fed a baby girl in
their care, strapping her arms to her sides in a car seat and hitting her with
their fingertips, shoes and rubber bands when she wouldn't eat, a former
employee testified yesterday.
The witness, Roxana Patino, 30, said the women also would place the
infant on the floor and shake the bottle of milk into her mouth. When she
spit the milk out, they would cover her mouth with a rag, causing the child
to choke and turn red and purple, she said.
Patino's testimony came during a preliminary hearing in Arlington Juvenile
and Domestic Relations Court for Teresa Villarreal, 42, and her
daughter-in-law Heidy Terceros, 23, who have been charged with one
count each of felony child abuse and neglect.
The mother of the baby girl, who was less than a year old when the alleged
abuse happened, and parents of many of the eight to 10 children who had
been in the women's care were in court yesterday to hear the testimony.
The mother cried or bowed her head as Patino testified.
After the emotional hearing, Judge Esther L. Wiggins found there was
probable cause to charge the women and sent the case to the grand jury.
The women are free on $5,000 bond each, and their home day-care
operation has been shut down, their attorneys said.
Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Theo Stamos told the judge that
although the women are charged only with abusing the baby girl, police
found "a pattern of abuse of a number of children," and Patino testified that
the women had struck "four or five" of them.
Arlington Detective James Stone said he went to Villarreal's single-family
brick home on South 12th Street in October to investigate allegations of
child abuse, and only one child, a boy, was old enough to talk.
Testifying through a Spanish-language interpreter, Patino, who did not
report the abuse herself, said she told Stone that she first observed abuse
several weeks after she was hired in May 1998. She said it continued until
last October, when she quit the $150-a-week job because she couldn't
stand to watch what was happening, particularly to the baby girl, who was
"not even 1 year old." The baby was treated more harshly than the others,
she said, because she was not a good eater.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alejandra Rueda asked Patino to
explain how Villarreal would feed the baby girl her breakfast each morning
after strapping her into the car seat.
"She would open her mouth and hold her nose," Patino said. "She would
put the food in, and sometimes [the child] would spit it back out. When she
spit it back out, she would hit her in the chest with her fingertips. She
would hit her in her forehead."
Sometimes, Patino said, Villarreal would take the baby's socks off and hit
the soles of her feet with a woman's shoe. When she gave the baby her
bottle on the ground, "she would put her foot on [the child's] feet.
The prosecutor asked what the child would do. "She would cry," Patino
said.
Defense attorneys for the two women assailed Patino, asking why she had
not come forward when the abuse she alleges started. Patino replied that
she was afraid to do so and thought that a friend in whom she confided had
reported the abuse.
"Did you ever think that [the baby's] life was in danger?" asked Sean
O'Malie, Villarreal's attorney.
"Yes," Patino said.
"And you didn't do anything about it?" O'Malie said.
"I would tell her not to do it, that (the baby) would die. . . ."
Patino testified that Terceros would feed the baby in the same manner.
After the hearing, Terceros's attorney, David Bernhard, said, "We will
present a vigorous defense, and hopefully, the truth will come out."
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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