A woman charged with child endangerment resulting in death after a child was found unresponsive in her home called her husband several minutes before he ended up calling 911, according to court documents.
A 17-month-old boy was found unresponsive at the Johnston home of 47-year-old Trina Mazza, an unregistered childcare provider, in February. Immediate medical care was offered at the scene and the individual was transported to a local hospital for advanced medical intervention, but later died.
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”, according to a criminal complaint.
A search warrant application for cell phones belonging to Mazza and her 49-year-old husband Michael Mazza became public in early June.
Trina Mazza escorted Detective Ryan Hanssen with the Johnston Police Department on February 15 to a room in the couple’s basement where she pointed to the place she says she found the boy upside down and unresponsive: Between two pack-and-play bassinets.
Upon initially finding the boy, court documents show Trina called her husband to come home immediately. Michael returned home to find Trina performing CPR, at which time he called 911.
Call logs show Trina called Michael at 12:03 p.m. on February 15, 2019, and a call to 911 was not placed until 12:08 p.m.
In March 2011 and September of 2017, Mazza received notices from the Iowa Department of Human Services, which advised that DHS had received complaints of the alleged defendant operating a child development home with more than five children at any one time.
Both DHS notices advised Mazza that an unregistered in-home provider shall not provide childcare services to more than five children at 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.
Trina stated to police that she had planned on dropping the boy and his older brother as clients due to worries about them not being vaccinated and fearing other children could catch their diseases.
The father of the children, according to the search warrant application, said Trina told him a “missing pack-and-play type bassinet” was the reason they were asked to leave the day care.
Both Michael and Trina Mazza are awaiting trial in Polk County. Michael does not face a charge of child endangerment resulting in death.
Both are also facing multiple felony charges each of theft, forgery and dependent adult abuse after allegedly stealing over $160,000 from an adult the two served as caretakers for.
