No charges filed in death of child at day care

WASILLA — The Wasilla Police Department has closed its investigation into the death of 19-month-old Faith Phillips and found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Illuminations Childcare and Educational Center or its staff.

“There will be no criminal charges. We have concluded our investigation and it was purely accidental as ruled by the medical examiner’s office, which was consistent with our findings,” Officer Rick Manrique said. “We had consultation with the district attorney’s office and they are in agreement that no charges are warranted.”

Phillips was playing on a toy castle at the day care Sept. 6 when she put her head through part of the apparatus and apparently slipped and strangled herself. She died Sept. 9. In the wake of her death, Wasilla experienced an outpouring of support for her parents, 19-year-old Brittany Phillips and her fiancé Andrew Stokes.

Manrique described the toy on which Phillips died as a plastic castle with a slide. The castle had parapets, through which she put her head. Manrique said the medical examiner found the parapets blocked the child’s carotid arteries on both sides. Similar to what happens when someone is put in a chokehold, Phillips quickly passed out. When she was limp, Manrique said, the position she was in didn’t allow her to breathe.

“It’s a commercially produced item specifically for the age range this child is, so everything was done right from the looks of it,” he said, meaning that Illuminations wasn’t wrong to let Phillips play on the toy.

Manrique said the state also has cleared Illuminations, as evidenced by the fact that the facility was allowed to re-open Oct. 1.

Yet another investigation also was conducted. Manrique said that the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission sent up an investigator to look over the toy castle.

As for Wasilla police, Manrique said the department examined all the evidence available.

“Once we have all of the information we look at whether or not there was negligence that rises to a criminal level and it does not even begin to approach the standard that we require of it,” he said. “Everything was videotaped at the center. The staff was out there busy with kids doing what staff should be doing.”

He said Phillips was just doing what kids do and, unfortunately, a tragic accident occurred.

Though that essentially closes off the criminal part of the court system, Phillips’ parents still have the option of pursuing legal action on the civil side through a lawsuit. As of Thursday afternoon, none had been filed, according to court records.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.