Judge denies motion to dismiss charges in child starvation death case
A Broward judge refused Monday to dismiss criminal charges against one of five defendants accused of allowing a 7-year-old child to starve to death last Christmas.
Mirlande Moltimer, 47, is the owner of Samaritin Home Health Care, a home health nursing service that was supposed to provide around-the-clock care for Deonte Atwell, a non-verbal Fort Lauderdale child who lived with a form of spina bifida that rendered him immobile from the waist down.
Prosecutors say his mother, brother, grandfather and two care providers starved Deonte and failed to report his deteriorating condition from October 2023, when he was last seen by non-family members, to Christmas two months later, when he was found dead and weighed just 7 pounds.
Moltimer is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, third-degree felony murder, child neglect and Medicaid fraud.
Defense lawyer Bruce Lehr argued that the case against Moltimer should be dismissed because his client did not fail in any professional or legal duties when she repeatedly signed off on the care Deonte was receiving, billing Medicaid as if the care were being provided.
Moltimer's company had complained in the past that Deonte's mother, Michelle Doe, was refusing to provide access to Deonte, but Moltimer's reports indicated she was relying on her nurse, Cassandre Lassegue, 33, whose charges include first-degree murder. Lassegue was not present at Monday's hearing.
Also charged with first-degree murder are Doe, 37, and her older son Tyreck Irvin, 21. If convicted on that count, Doe, Irvin and Lassegue face a mandatory sentence of life in prison .
James Graham, Deonte's grandfather, is charged like Moltimer with aggravated manslaughter of a child, in addition to neglect and failure to report abuse.
Moltimer and Graham's most serious charge carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Assistant State Attorney Melissa Kelly told Broward Circuit Judge George Odom that the charges against Moltimer were warranted because her supervisory role should have flagged the neglect that was taking place.
In denying the motion to dismiss, Odom said he was not making a statement about the merits of the state's case.
