A Prairieville woman operating an unlicensed in-home daycare faces a negligent homicide charge after a 3-year-old boy drowned in her backyard swimming pool last month, authorities said.
Joann Johnson, 37, turned herself in to detectives with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Unit on Wednesday, June 3, following a weeks-long investigation into the child’s death.
The incident unfolded on Monday, May 18, when emergency dispatchers received a 911 call around 3:50 p.m. regarding a drowning at a home on Roy Rogers Road. Deputies and paramedics arrived to find the unresponsive toddler and immediately began performing CPR. The child was airlifted by Air Med to a nearby hospital, where medical staff later pronounced him deceased.
Investigators tracking the sequence of events leading up to the drowning reviewed home surveillance footage from the afternoon of the incident. According to detectives, the video captured two young children, under Johnson’s supervision, playing near the pool without life jackets or other flotation safety gear…