MIAMI – Prosecutors in Miami-Dade County want to offer a plea deal to the daycare van driver charged with manslaughter in the death of a child at a the Jomiba Learning Center in Homestead last July.
Lelier Perez Hernandez was charged after he left 22-monthold Dominicue Andrews on the van in morning
According to court records, Hernandez took Dominicue from the van and laid him on a concrete slab outside the school without telling anyone he had found the child. Hernandez participated in a search for the toddler. A staff member later found him lying outside, police said.
Hernandez was charged with manslaughter and tampering with evidence.
On Tuesday morning, the prosecutor asked Dominicue's family if they could offer Hernandez a plea deal, instead of prison time.
"It makes me feel bad," the boy's father said. "My son passed away and they can't even tell me what happened. They come with pleas? That's not right."
"It's not enough," said the child's mother.
"They want to have the family agree to a plea. That is really a slap on the wrist," their attorney told Local 10's Glenna Milberg.
The state attorney's office, however, says no formal plea offer has been made. But family members say justice may never be served.