A 28-year-old Taylor woman is in the custody of the Taylor Police Department after she admitted to harming a 10-month-old baby while she was caring for him at her illegal at-home daycare.
Tempest Coulter was arrested July 6, three weeks after Williamson County Emergency Medical Services were called to her apartment in the 405 block of Sloan Street for a report of a child who was having difficulty breathing.
According to Taylor Police, EMS appeared at her residence a few minutes before 1 p.m. and transported the child to Dell Children's Hospital.
Taylor police were not notified about the incident until they received a call from Child Protective Services at 7:15 p.m., alerting them to the fact that the child was in serious condition.
Child Care Licensing shut the daycare down the same day the child was removed from the home and hospitalized.
Initially, police said it was unclear if the child was suffering from an inflicted injury or from a medical condition. On June 21, hospital staff confirmed the child received an "abusive and traumatic" brain injury.
According to an arrest affidavit, the child's parents told police that Coulter was caring for the baby and his older sibling. The mother said that EMS dispatch told her that her 10-month-old was on the way to the hospital.
While the mother was on the way to the hospital, the father went to Coulter's house and asked her what happened. She told him that the baby was in a bouncer seat and began throwing his head back so she took him out of the seat and he started shaking, which is when she said she called EMS, according to the affidavit.
Coulter told police that she accidentally dropped the child, but doctors at the hospital said the injuries could not have been caused by a simple drop and were more likely the result of shaking.
Coulter is charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
This current charge isn't the only offense on Coulter's record. In February of 2013, she was arrested for drug possession, a third-degree felony. Eight months later, the charge was dismissed, court records show.