'Go ahead, throw up': Foster care employees held 7-year-old boy down for minutes with his nose nearly on the floor and his legs in front of him, authorities say

Background: The Uspiritus-Brooklawn facility in Louisville, Kentucky (WDRB/YouTube). Inset: Ja'Ceon Terry (WDRB/YouTube).

Three employees of a Kentucky foster care facility are accused of holding a 7-year-old boy down until he suffocated, and a report about the circumstances of the day of his death suggesting the system failed the child.

Ja'Ceon Terry died on July 17, 2022, while under the care of the Uspiritus-Brooklawn foster care service in Louisville, Kentucky, according to a 122-page report from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Roughly four years later, Deborah Francis, Jillian Parks, and Amanda Whitlow were indicted on one count each of second-degree complicity to manslaughter, Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina Whethers' office announced, per local Fox affiliate WDRB. The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, but none of them appeared.

According to the report shared by Louisville Public Media, Ja'Ceon was admitted to the Brooklawn facility in June 2022. By the time he came under the care of the state in 2018, he had reportedly seen drug use, violence, and prostitution, often being left alone and possibly being sexually abused.

During the morning of July 17, 2022, two staff members were present to care for the nine patients at Brooklawn, below the legally required ratio of one employee for every three patients, per authorities. Ja'Ceon was left in his room for hours, and his attempts to signal for staff went unanswered, the report said.

At about 12:15 p.m., the child signaled for help; he had urinated on himself. Francis, the shift supervisor, led Ja'Ceon past the building's common area and reportedly said aloud, "This is what big boys/girls do. They p— on themselves. And you really p—ed on yourself," drawing laughter from other residents.

Francis had apparently been upset since the start of her shift, saying the child had "ruined her church day" and adding later that "she was going to hold him and make him throw up."

Hours later, at about 2:25 p.m., Ja'Ceon was alone in his room when he again signaled for an employee. Whitlow said she approached and saw that the boy had had another accident and that he threatened to throw a plastic water bottle at her but didn't do it.

Another employee — Parks, who the report claimed was a trigger for the child — entered the room. She apparently pinned his hands against the wall before he called her a "stupid b—."

Parks reportedly then pinned the child's arms to his hips while he faced away, but the pair fell to the floor, and she held him down there. Whitlow claimed she held his feet and tried to calm him down, laughing with him because she had accidentally sat in his pee.

Francis took over the hold from Parks a minute later while Ja'Ceon reportedly fought to free himself. Whitlow reportedly said the shift supervisor pushed the child so far forward that his nose nearly touched the floor as his legs were still straight out in front of him.

Whitlow was apparently ordered to go check on the other residents, and about four minutes later, she heard Francis say, "Go ahead, throw up, throw up," seeing that the boy had indeed thrown up clear liquid and food while crying.

About 10 minutes after the hold began, Ja'Ceon was unconscious. Francis reportedly said she felt his body "become dead weight." Whitlow ran to get cold water, which they dumped on him before trying CPR and calling 911.

Arriving first responders found the child without a pulse. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office said he died from positional asphyxia, per WDRB, which is "a rare but potentially fatal condition where an individual's body assumes a position interfering with normal respiratory movements and leading to asphyxiation," according to the National Library of Medicine.

The regional TV station noted that the indictments against the three employees came over three years after a settlement was reached in a wrongful death lawsuit. The staff members who restrained Ja'Ceon were fired, and they later refused to testify during a deposition.

Another arraignment for Francis, Parks, and Whitlow is expected to be scheduled. Law&Crime reached out to the Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for more information.