Parents of Baby Who Drowned in Home Pool Are Arrested

A couple whose 1-year-old died after falling into their unfenced backyard pool while they napped were arrested Tuesday on charges of child endangerment.

Soloi Tavita, 28, and Talaave Taafua, 25, are charged with “negligently placing the child in a dangerous circumstance likely to produce great bodily injury or death,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Bob Hight said.

One-year-old Darice Alovao Taafua died on Aug. 4, one day after his mother awoke from a nap to find the child at the bottom of the family pool, police said. The toddler’s father also was asleep in the house in the 2200 block of North Lair Street, Sgt. Bob Clark said.

The pool had no fence, and police at the time said the baby had wandered past an unlocked sliding glass door in his mother’s bedroom. On Tuesday, police said it was unclear how the child got into the backyard.

Three other children were in the house at the time, police said.

The death brought the tally of drownings and near-drownings in Orange County to 33 in 1996, Orange County Fire Authority officials said. Of the 33 incidents, 19 were accidental drownings and six of those were children younger than 4, according to the Health Care Agency.

Hight would not specify why charges were filed in this case, when so many drowning deaths have not been prosecuted. But, he said, “In this particular situation, the facts have been evaluated that it was criminal negligence that caused this child to be placed in a dangerous circumstance, and that circumstance was likely to cause great bodily injury or death.”

The couple were booked into the Santa Ana Detention Facility on $10,000 bail each and were scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court, Hight said. If convicted, they face sentences ranging from probation to six years in prison.