Baton Rouge child found dead in day care vehicle; owner recently lost license to care for children

Two employees of an unlicensed North Baton Rouge day care center were arrested Friday after a 22-month-old child was found dead in a facility vehicle, allegedly forgotten there by the employees.

Shelia Newman, 47, and April Wright, 26, were both charged with negligent homicide and booked into East Baton Rouge Parish prison. Newman, who owns the day care at 6345 Prescott Road, was also charged with obstruction of justice for instructing Wright to lie to police about where the child was found.

Although Newman recently lost her day care license for “problems with ratio of children to attendants,” she and Wright were caring for at least 15 children on Friday at the daycare, according to their arrest warrants. Louisiana law requires facilities that care for more than seven unrelated children to be licensed by the Department of Education.

The child, 22-month-old Angel Green, was found in a van about two hours after Newman and Wright drove 15 children, including Green, to lunch at the nearby Jehovah Ministry, police said.

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