Parents Plead Guilty in Child’s Drowning

A couple charged with felony child endangerment in the drowning of their year-old son agreed Friday to plead guilty to the charges in order to move on with their lives, an attorney representing the husband said.

Soloi and Talaave Taafua will not face jail time or a fine under the terms of the agreement. The charge will be reduced to a misdemeanor if they do not break any laws for several months, and they will likely be placed on informal probation for a year, defense attorney Peter Macdonald said.

The couple could have faced six years in state prison if they had been found guilty in a trial.

“We just want it to be over,” the 28-year-old mother, Soloi Taafua, said outside court.

In taking the unusual step of filing charges in a drowning, prosecutors alleged that the parents negligently placed the child in a dangerous circumstance likely to produce injury or death.

The baby, Darice Alovao Taafua, died Aug. 4, a day after his mother awoke from a nap to find him at the bottom of the pool at their Santa Ana home, police said. The toddler’s father, 24-year-old Talaave Taafua, was also asleep in the house.

The pool had no fence. Police said the baby had wandered past an unlocked sliding glass door in his mother’s bedroom.

Macdonald said the couple’s guilty plea was for the benefit of their family, which he said has been under severe strain with several court hearings, contact with social service agencies and classes in bereavement and CPR. The couple has other children.

“I believe that if we had gone to trial, these people would have been found not guilty,” Macdonald said. “They entered this plea out of consideration for their family. Their child died, and days later they were put in jail. They have been through an incredible amount and haven’t had time to catch their breath and grieve for their child. It was taking its toll on their family.”