Inset: The bathtub that Nakeeya Arbogast’s son drowned in, according to prosecutors (King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office). Background: The apartment building where Nakeeya Arbogast lives (Google Maps).
A Washington state mother was talking on the phone with her children’s father — despite there being a domestic violence protection order in place restricting contact — while her son with Down syndrome was drowning by himself in a bathtub, cops and prosecutors say.
Nakeeya Arbogast’s 2-year-old boy, who could not walk, crawl or sit independently without support, was killed by the 25-year-old earlier this month after she left him unattended in a bathtub in her Seattle home on July 9, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Arbogast with one count of first-degree manslaughter involving domestic violence after her son was rushed to a hospital and died two days later.
Prosecutors allege that the child was particularly vulnerable because of his developmental disabilities and that the offense occurred within sight or sound of another minor child, with the local ABC affiliate KOMO reporting that these details could serve as aggravating factors if Arbogast is convicted.
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According to charging documents, Arbogast was talking on the phone with her children’s father after stepping out of the bathroom to care for her two other children who were also in the home. She came back to find her son unconscious in the bathtub and called police, the documents say.
“She admitted while she tended to her other two children and [her son] was drowning in the bathtub, she was on the phone with the children’s father, an individual she wasn’t supposed to be communicating with due to an active domestic violence no contact order,” the charging documents allege. “When asked by the initial responding officers, the defendant confirmed the tub was full when she returned to the bathroom to find [her son] floating and not breathing in the water.”
Officers and firefighters responded and then transported the boy to Seattle Children’s Hospital with brain injuries caused by drowning. The charging documents say Arbogast told police that she placed the child facedown in the bathtub, turned on the water, then left to go change her other children’s diapers and prepare a snack for one of them.
When cops arrived on scene, the bathroom floor was still wet and the tub’s water level was “only inches from the top of the bathtub,” according to the charging documents.
Arbogast allegedly admitted during police interviews that she knew it was unsafe to leave her son by himself in the bathtub the way she did. She described him as functioning at a level “equivalent to that of an 11 month old,” the charging documents say. “He is relatively nonverbal and limited to ‘momma’ and ‘dadda’ and crying,” Arbogast explained.
Doctors determined that the boy suffered a severe hypoxic brain injury from being underwater.
“As the water filled the tub around [the boy’s] tiny body, he was unable to do anything to save himself from drowning,” the charging documents say. “The defendant left [her son], who was completely physically helpless, in the tub face down.”
Arbogast allegedly told police she was distracted for three to six minutes. But investigators tested the bathtub and found it took at least 14 minutes to fill completely, the charging documents say, noting how Arbogast’s son “was likely in the water, alone, for more than 14 minutes.”
When asked whether she was speaking on the phone with the father of her children, Arbogast allegedly gave conflicting statements and provided police with a cellphone that was not seen in officers’ body-worn camera footage on the night of the drowning.
Police say they later recovered a different cellphone following Arbogast’s arrest that matched the one seen in the video.
According to prosecutors, Arbogast had previously threatened the children’s father and told him she’d kill their kids if he ever left her. Arbogast allegedly denied doing this and also denied intending to kill her son.
“The defendant knew of the risk she placed her child in,” according to prosecutors. “While it is common sense and known by every competent parent that you do not leave a child in a bathtub unattended, the defendant’s actions and statements clearly demonstrate she knew death could result by leaving her developmentally disabled son face down and unsupervised in the bathtub.”
Arbogast was being held on $1 million bail this week after being charged Monday.
The post Little boy was left face down in bathtub, drowned all alone while his mother was chatting on cellphone and paying attention to other kids: DA first appeared on Law & Crime.
