Inset: Shahin Gheblehshenas (Santa Clara DA's Office). Background: Gheblehshenas's California home where two toddlers drowned in 2023 (KNTV).
A 67-year-old woman in California is going to prison after two toddlers attending her unlicensed in-home day care were left unattended and drowned in a backyard pool.
A jury in Santa Clara County deliberated for just two hours before finding Shahin Gheblehshenas guilty on three felony counts of child endangerment, authorities announced.
The verdict followed a three-week trial that included testimony from more than 30 witnesses.
Gheblehshenas's daughter, 43-year-old Nina Fathizadeh, co-owned the day care. She previously pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges earlier this year.
According to a news release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, the convictions stem from an October 2023 incident at the pair's San Jose home day care, where multiple toddlers gained access to a pool and fell in while unsupervised.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Gheblehshenas left her home that morning to go to an appointment then to another unlicensed day care operated at her daughter's residence. Another worker had called in sick that day, leaving Fathizadeh as the sole caregiver at her mother's home.
Gheblehshenas knew her husband regularly watered the plants and occasionally did not close the pool gate, prosecutors said. She didn't check the pool gate before the day care opened that Monday morning and didn't ask anyone else to check on it either, court documents obtained by NBC's Bay Area affiliate KNTV stated.
At Gheblehshenas's day care, the children played in the living room before Fathizadeh opened the sliding glass door and directed them into the backyard. She had a view of the pool gate — still propped open — yet she did nothing to close it, the charging document alleges.
Then she walked to the kitchen to finish preparing tea and oatmeal. From the kitchen, she could not see the children or the backyard. She was there for at least five minutes before going to the backyard to check on the children, the document said.
"Upon seeing that the gate to the pool was propped open by a drying rack, [Fathizadeh] went to the pool and located John Doe floating in the shallow end," the charging document said.
She removed the boy from the pool and attempted CPR before moving him to a living room, calling 911, and trying CPR again.
She then woke her brother, asleep in his bedroom, for help. He went to the pool and found two toddlers floating in the deep end. The brother removed the children from the pool, called 911, and attempted CPR.
The children were taken to hospitals in critical status. Two of the victims, 18-month-old Peyton Cobb and 16-month-old Lillian Hanan, died despite lifesaving efforts. The third child survived.
Investigators determined the pool's safety gate had been propped open, allowing the children to access the water. Authorities said neither Gheblehshenas nor Fathizadeh checked the gate before allowing the children outside, despite prior knowledge that it had been left unsecured.
"These defendants had the ultimate responsibility to care for these little ones and they criminally failed," Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement following the verdict. "These small children tragically paid for this inattention and incompetence with their lives. We can't bring them back. All we can do is pray for their families to find some peace in the knowledge that there will be accountability."
The day care had faced scrutiny over staffing and supervision issues. Charging documents indicated Gheblehshenas left the home that morning without ensuring the environment was safe, even after learning staffing was limited. She also chose not to return after realizing she did not have the appointment she initially left for.
Both women are scheduled to be sentenced on May 22. They each face more than 10 years in prison. Fathizadeh faces an additional nine years in prison for "reckless driving" with seven unsecured toddlers "on a field trip outing from the day care," prosecutors said.
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