A Florida father was arrested on a manslaughter charge more than two years after his 2-month-old daughter died because she was found with a baby wipe jammed deep in her throat, according to officials.
According to Indian River County court filings, 30-year-old Joseph Napier has been charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of 2-month-old Iris Noelle.
Court records do not list a lawyer for Napier, and a phone call to his home on Wednesday went unanswered. His arraignment is scheduled on October 19, and he is now being held in the Indian River County Jail on a $750,000 bond.
Sheriff Eric Flowers of Indian River County reported Napier’s arrest on Sunday, more than two years after Iris Noelle’s death on May 28, 2021 in Vero Beach, Florida on the Atlantic Coast.
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The following are the key facts of the case:
Napier was at home with his two children on the day Iris died. Kady Causey, Napier’s girlfriend and the girl’s mother, was most likely at work.
Flowers told reporters at a news conference on Sunday that Napier told police that he left Iris and his 18-month-old daughter alone on a couch for around 10 minutes and that when he returned, the baby was choking.
According to the sheriff’s office, after dialing 911 to report that his daughter Iris was unconscious and choking, paramedics briefed him on how to do CPR.
When the deputy came, Iris was unresponsive and becoming blue, so he took over CPR and transported her to the hospital, where doctors had to use forceps to extricate a baby wipe from Iris’ neck, according to Flowers.
Despite “life-saving efforts” from all those involved, the kid was declared dead.
This investigation
When asked by USA TODAY this week why it took two years and three months to arrest Napier, department officials declined to comment, and Flowers did not give an explanation.
Flowers said during the news conference that she is “confident that our team has done a great job putting this case together.”
He said, “I’m proud of our team.” “It could have taken us two years to get to where we are today,” he remarked. “I’m proud that they take their time and cross all their ‘T’s dot all their ‘I’s and do it the right way,” one officer said, “to ensure that when we finally make an arrest, we will see justice in these cases.”
Murder through carelessness
Napier said he only left his children alone for 10 minutes, but according to Flowers, his phone records show that he was on his phone for at least 30 minutes, playing games, putting restaurant orders, and perusing Facebook.
Iris’ mother, Causey, told detectives that her daughter’s older brother was infatuated with baby wipes, according to evidence given in court. Flowers alleged Napier told them he believed 18-month-old Iris had put the wipe in her mouth.
“That’s not possible,” Flowers said, referring to the forensic examiners’ measurements of the 18-month-old’s hand and finger lengths, as well as Iris’ neck.
He said that the authorities had text messages in which Napier complained to Causey about Iris’ tears.
Flowers added that “if I could prove that he intentionally wanted to kill this child, we would definitely have” a more serious case against Napier than manslaughter.
“We do believe he placed that wipe in the child’s mouth,” Flowers said. That was going to injure this youngster, and he should have known it. He left the kids alone for around 30 minutes. His recklessness is directly responsible for the deaths of these children.
Two years of agony
During the press conference, Joe Miller, Causey’s father and Iris’s grandfather, testified that on the day his granddaughter died, he heard Napier “screaming at the top of his lungs at the baby: ‘Why can’t you shut the eff up!'”
Miller went on to say that the previous two years have been difficult for him and his family.
“I’m very emotional right now,” he said. Our family has had a difficult journey… I can’t wait for the case to be handled for the benefit of our family. Because we’re all still clinging on a thread.
He was skeptical that an arrest would be made in the case, but he was pleased with the investigation.
He said that they took their time because they wanted to do it well. They made a compelling case, and that’s all that matters.
According to West Palm Beach television, Napier had placed his oldest daughter, who was about four years old at the time of the event, with a relative. According to Flowers, Causey was detained for entirely different reasons.
