Former day care owner sentenced to 5 years in prison in death of boy

Former co-owner receives probation, community service

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A former Sunrise day care owner was sentenced Thursday to five years in state prison, with credit for 331 days already served.

Cecily Roberts pleaded no contest to aggravated manslaughter of a child as part of a plea deal in the death of 4-year-old Jordan Coleman.

The former co-owner of the day care, Camille Gordon, was arrested on the same charge as Roberts after they were both found by authorities in New York.

She was found guilty Thursday and was sentenced to 15 years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

A former employee at the day care, Paris Ward, was also sentenced to 15 years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

Jordan's mother spoke in court Thursday, disgusted about the defendants' response to her son's death.

"We're the victims," Fantasia Goldson said. "We didn't get no sorry. We didn't get, 'Oh my God, we understand your pain that you're going through.'"

Goldson was not satisfied with the defendants' sentences.

"That's not justice for a 4-year-old that passed away," she said. "It's not like you're doing 10 or 15 years. You still will have time to live your life."

Police said Jordan was found unconscious Aug. 1, 2012, in the back of an SUV.

Authorities said Jordan had been in the SUV for more than two hours while it was parked at an apartment complex in Tamarac.

He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Police said Roberts owned 3C's Daycare in Sunrise at the time and told her employees to take Jordan and seven other children to the Tamarac apartment complex.

The day care has since been shut down. The former co-owner of the day care, Camille Gordon, was arrested on the same charge as Roberts after they were both found by authorities in New York.

Roberts was recently convicted for her involvement in illegally receiving payments from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

She was sentenced last May to 33 months in prison, plus several more years of supervised release.


About the Authors:

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.

Sanela Sabovic joined Local 10 News in September 2012 as an assignment editor and associate producer. In August 2015, she became a full-time reporter and fill-in traffic reporter. Sanela holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with a concentration in radio, television and film from DePaul University.