Baby-sitting Cape woman receives 4 years in prison in toddler death

Editor's Note: This story has been edited to correct a website address.

A Cape Girardeau woman has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the dog-mauling death of a 13-month-old girl she was baby-sitting.

Erica Jordan, 33, pleaded guilty in December just before a bench trial in the case was scheduled to begin at the Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau.

As part of the agreement, a charge of endangering the welfare of a child was dropped.

Judge Benjamin Lewis told a tearful Jordan he assumed her attorney "will argue to put you on probation."

But in the January sentencing, Lewis handed down the maximum sentence to Jordan as recommended by Cape Girardeau County assistant prosecutor Julia Koester.

Colleen Lynn, founder of DogBites.org, a public education website about dangerous dogs, chiefly pit bulls, told the Southeast Missourian on Thursday she was pleased the judge sentenced Jordan to prison and did not place her on probation.

Lynn, of Austin, Texas, said she had followed the case closely.

Lynn said it is unusual nationwide for anyone to face felony charges in fatal dog-biting cases. Only about 20 percent of such cases result in criminal charges, she said.

Jordan told police she was temporarily keeping the dog, a pit bull/Labrador/malamute named Smokey, for her brother.

Lynn said, "It was the worst possible timing for this dog to be there."

But she said the evidence shows Jordan knew the dog could be violent.

In a probable-cause statement, police Sgt. Darren Estes wrote Jordan stated she frequently let the dog loose, but sometimes confined Smokey in a room because the dog is "not good with kids."

Jordan recalled the dog had "attacked" her son, biting him in the head a year before the fatal attack, according to the probable-cause statement.

Lynn said the death of the girl, Loxli Chavez, was "so preventable" if Jordan had kept the dog away from the child.

The incident occurred March 9, 2018, at Jordan's home at 46 N. Hanover St.

The victim's mother, Tia Bailey, told police Jordan never told her Smokey previously attacked Jordan's child. Bailey said Jordan had assured her the dog would not pose a risk, according to the statement.

Jordan told police Smokey was drinking water from a dog bowl within a few feet of Loxli just before the attack.

She said she suddenly "heard screaming and crying" and saw "blood everywhere," according to the probable-cause statement.

She told police she tried to pull the dog away, but "he was so aggressive" and "just kept going for the baby."

She finally pulled Smokey off the child and secured him in a closed bedroom. She then called 911.

The girl was taken to the hospital where she later died.

Police said after the attack the dog was impounded and would be euthanized.

Jordan told police Smokey had been neutered and "she thought the dog had 'calmed down,'" according to the probable-cause statement.

But Lynn said neutering a dog "does not erase learned behavior."

She added such thinking can put people at risk. "It just makes you mad," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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