A Summerfield mom charged within the demise of her 17-month-old son had confronted a earlier cost of kid neglect.
Tracie Renee Puskac, 36, was taken into custody Monday within the demise of her son, Jermiyah Puskac. She is dealing with a cost of second diploma homicide and continues to be held with out bond on the Marion County Jail.
In 2020, Puskac had been arrested after biting the arm of her then-72-year-old mom throughout a fracas on the household dwelling in Summerfield. When Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, Puskac’s mom was within the storage bleeding from the arm whereas Puskac was holding her baby, who was 18 months previous on the time, in a single arm and hammer within the reverse hand.
When the deputy tried to take management of Puskac and safely take away the kid, Puskac clenched the kid and resisted the deputy’s efforts. The kid was screaming in ache, in line with the arrest report. On the time of that arrest, Puskac admitted the kid would seemingly be left with a “psychological scar.”
Later that very same 12 months, the prosecutor’s workplace introduced it could not be pursuing prices within the case.
This previous April 27, emergency personnel responded to the Puskac dwelling in Summerfield, in reference to an unresponsive toddler, later recognized as Jermiyah. The toddler was initially transported to AdventHealth Belleview ER, then subsequently transported to UF Well being Shands Hospital for remedy.
Puskac knowledgeable detectives that Jermiyah was banging his head on the ground at roughly 8:30 p.m. the earlier evening, so she moved him to a secure spot and held him down. Then, at 10 p.m., he turned “stiff as a board,” at which level she put him to mattress. Puskac claimed that when she awakened the next day at roughly 7 a.m., Jermiyah’s lips have been blue and his respiration shallow, so she had her mom name 911.
Over the course of a number of interviews with Puskac, her variations of the evening’s occasions continued to alter, giving detectives completely different accounts of how Jermiyah hit his head. Detectives inquired as to why Puskac didn’t name 911 when the toddler turned “stiff” the earlier evening. Puskac said she didn’t need the Division of Kids and Households to return and take her youngsters away once more. DCF has an open case with Puskac and had beforehand eliminated the youngsters from the house.
Jermiyah in the end succumbed to his accidents on April 29. On July 7, the eighth Circuit Medical Examiner’s Workplace offered the post-mortem outcomes, concluding that Jermiyah died from issues of a cranium fracture, subdural hemorrhage, and traumatic mind and spinal wire damage because of abusive head and neck trauma. Attributable to these accidents, it was decided the style of demise was a murder. An investigation decided that Jermiyah’s accidents have been too extreme to be attributable to any of Puskac’s situations, and an arrest warrant for Puskac was obtained.
