JOHNSTON, Iowa — An unregistered Johnston day care provider has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the death of a child in her care in February 2019.
Mazza was charged with child endangerment resulting in death after a 17-month-old boy was found unresponsive in her home. Investigators said she first called her husband and started CPR on the 17-month-old. When her husband came home minutes later, he called 911.
Call logs between Mazza and her husband, Michael, showed that she called him at 12:03 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2019, and a call to 911 was not made until 12:08 p.m.
According to a criminal complaint, Mazza “willfully deprived the child of the necessary supervision appropriate to the child’s age when the Defendant was reasonably able to make the necessary provisions, and which deprivation substantially harmed the child’s physical, mental and/or emotional health, resulting in death."
Mazza asked her case to be dismissed in July 2019, with defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown claiming that the unsupervised child was left with "routine child care devices that have been used by Americans since their invention."
In March 2011 and September 2017, Mazza received notices from the Iowa Department of Human Services informing her that a complaint had been sent to DHS concerning the number of children she cared for at a time. Legally, an unregistered day care can only watch five children or fewer at any one time.
Upon further investigation after the child’s death, Mazza was found to be operating an in-home day care in excess of the five children allowed.
Mazza pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent person. In addition to prison, she must pay over $1,300 in fines and victim damages.
She has appealed her judgment.
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