Cheyenne Summer Stuckey, age 21, of Reno, TX, was so engaged in Facebook that she continued messaging for nearly 20 minutes while her eight-month-old little girl, Zayla Hernandez, was alone in a bathtub drowning. Stuckey was arrested, booked and remains held at Parker County Jail. Her bond is set at $50,000 following Zayla’s death on June 13. She is charged with injury to a child, along with reckless endangerment.
Stuckey claimed to have left Zayla by herself for a couple minutes, saying that a loud television and another one of her children distracted her after she left the bathroom, according to officers.
After she remembered leaving her small daughter in the bathtub, she went back and found Zayla face-down, floating in the bathtub. Her child was non-responsive and she didn’t know how to perform resuscitation, she told officers.
Zayla could not be resuscitated by emergency responders who performed by CPR. She was rushed by ambulance to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Azle where she was pronounced dead. The autopsy report from Tarrant County Medical Examiners stated that the little girl died as a result of drowning.
Investigators say mother didn’t tell the truth
Parker County sheriff’s investigators discovered contrary to what Stuckley said happened. Information they found led officers to contend that Zayla was left unattended 18 minutes as Stuckey continued messaging two people, including Malisa Ogle, her neighbor in Reno, TX.
Dallas-Forth Worth Fox 4 reported that Olge told the station Stuckey located her on Facebook and, then, messaged her. Stuckey started the discussion about whether she took a mail package containing jewelry that was delivered but not received by Olge, the intended recipient.
In the arrest affidavit, it states that Stuckey said her neighbor accused her of “stealing” the package.
Olge, however, also told the station that she had not accused Stuckey of stealing her package. She only asked Stuckey whether she had it since it was delivered but not to her.
While on Facebook writing Olge, Stuckey was also messaging a different person about drug paraphernalia, according to the affidavit.
Mother on Facebook morning after daughter died
The morning after Zayla died, Stuckey, again, used Facebook to message her neighbor. According to Olge, Stuckey wrote that she hoped her neighbor found her postal package and that, at least, Olge still had her baby.
Stuckey’s 2-year-old son and 4-year-old twin daughters were taken from the home and put in foster care, which is where the children were until May, roughly one month before Zayla’s reported drowning, according to detectives. Also, the arrest warrant affidavit says that her older children were taken by Child Protective Services due to neglect.
Stuckey’s history of involvement with CPS is confidential, according to Marissa Gonzales, spokeswoman for Department of Family and Protective Services in Texas.
She said CPS is investigating and will conduct a review of earlier interactions with Stuckey’s family to see if anything “could have been done differently” and determine if previous actions were appropriate.
