Charges will not go forward against the parents of the Gilbert toddler mistakenly pronounced dead after apparently drowning in a backyard pool, Maricopa County prosecutors have announced.
Gilbert police recommended criminal charges against Alexus and Angelo Fiordilino after their son, Vincent Lorenzo, was found Feb. 8 in a pool and later declared dead
. The couple was found to be smoking marijuana earlier in the day, according to police reports.Citing the need for proof beyond a reasonable doubt of "a substantial and unjustifiable risk" and a "serious lapse of judgment" for a jury conviction, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office made the announcement July 29.
"After a review of the facts of the case and all available evidence by senior attorneys,
it was determined that this case did not meet our charging standard of 'reasonable likelihood of conviction,'" the county attorney's office said in a statement.
The family had multiple childproof locks and other "safety measures," multiple adults who thought someone was watching over the child and there was no evidence of "obvious" impairment for the parents, the county attorney's office added.
No other charges have been submitted to the county attorney's office in the incident, the agency said.
Dr. Aryan Toosi, an emergency medicine physician at Dignity Health Gilbert Medical Center, ordered staff to stop CPR on Vincent and to call a time of death, according to a police officer's report. Hours later, the boy was found to be alive. A police officer at the hospital later wrote in a report that during resuscitation efforts at the hospital, a nurse was heard saying, "I have a pulse."
"Toosi arrogantly told me he was the doctor, he has the medical degree, he went to medical school for a reason, and to let him do his thing," read the police officer's report.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Prosecutors to not charge parents of Gilbert tot who survived drowning
