Background: Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Fla. (Google Maps). Insets, left to right: Leroy Somersall III and Madison Smith (Seminole County Sheriff”s Office).
A Florida couple are behind bars while their 5-month-old twins recover from malnutrition in the hospital.
Leroy Somersall III, 24, and Madison Smith, 23, were both charged with child neglect with great bodily harm after they brought their 5-month-old twins to the hospital on Jan. 6. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by local ABC affiliate WFTV, Child Protective Services received a tip on its hotline about the babies, a boy and a girl, and notified the police.
When Seminole County Sheriff’s detectives arrived at the hospital, medical staff told them the little boy was “dehydrated and malnourished to the point where you can see every bone in his body.”
Local Fox affiliate WOFL also obtained the affidavit, which stated that both babies were severely malnourished and dehydrated and only weighed 5.7 pounds at 5 months old. The affidavit said the little girl weighed more than that amount when she was born; both babies were born a month premature. Smith tested positive for THC when she gave birth, police said.
Smith told police that she and Somersall brought the babies to the hospital when they realized the little boy was unresponsive. When police asked about how she was feeding both babies, she told them the pediatrician recommended increasing their formula to 70 to 80 milliliters every two hours. However, Smith said she had not spoken to the pediatrician since September 2025, when the babies were newborns.
Both parents told police they did not realize they needed to increase the feeding amounts as their babies grew. They also claimed since Somersall was thin, that was why the babies were thin.
When investigators searched the RV where the family lived, they said they did not find any evidence of formula.
Somersall and Smith were both arrested and charged with child neglect with great bodily harm. Both parents are being held at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on $100,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear in court on March 3.
Police said in the affidavit that both babies are expected to survive and have improved since being hospitalized. They may have suffered neurological damage.
