EXCERPTS:
Charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault have been dropped against a Mississauga woman arrested after a toddler was fatally injured at her home daycare in January.
Instead, April Luckese, 35, will be charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life.
Her lawyer, Bruce Daley, says she will plead not guilty.
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Fourteen-month-old Duy-An Nguyen was under Luckese's care at her unlicensed daycare in her Mississauga townhome when a 911 call was made and the toddler rushed to the Hospital for Sick Children.
The child's family told the Star she had "severe head injuries." She was taken off life support two days later.
Luckese has been out on bail, confined to her residence. She is not permitted contact with children under 12 except for her own two boys.
"She is doing a lot better now that the murder charges are stayed," Daley said outside the court, adding his client "benefits from presumption of innocence."
"Her daycare business has folded," he said. "She has been hounded out of business, she had to move. There was a lot of understandable public revulsion . . . but once all of the facts are out there, my client's case will look much different."
The dead child's uncle also attended the hearing. Quoc Nguyen would not comment on the decision to reduce the charges against Luckese, saying only that the tragedy continues to haunt his family.
-reprinted from the Toronto Star