A Florida woman who allegedly killed her toddler son through a long period of neglect and abuse, and is said to have once blamed a duck for some of his injuries, will stand trial this week.
Erica Beth Dotson, 31, is charged with one count each of premeditated murder in the first degree, aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse, and child neglect with great bodily harm, according to Brevard County Sheriff’s Office records.
On July 11, 2021, police responded to a 911 call reporting a “child not breathing” at an apartment on Lago Circle in West Melbourne, a small city approximately 70 miles southeast of Orlando.
Dotson greeted the officers at the stairs. She held the lifeless body of 3-year-old Jameson Nance in her arms. According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, the child suffered from prolonged “battered child syndrome” with a litany of injuries inflicted weeks before his death, including a broken tooth “pushed into” his gums, a cut on his jaw, a fractured right rib and left arm, a ruptured esophagus, and seven separate stab wounds — some fresh, some healing — to his head.
However, some of the abuse Jameson faced was visible to first responders who met his mother on the second-floor landing that day.
“The Patrol Supervisor immediately determined the child was deceased, as rigor mortis had set in,” according to the witnesses. “The child appeared to be bruised significantly, his face was swollen and there were obvious signs of trauma.”
Dotson allegedly told investigators she awoke at 5:15 a.m. and “snuggled” with her son before leaving for work about an hour later. According to the affidavit, the defendant stated that she spoke on the phone with her boyfriend, Joshua Andrew Manns, 29, around 6 p.m. about something unrelated to her son. An hour later, during a phone call, Manns allegedly told Dotson not to drive because Jameson was “not good.”
“Over the next several minutes Manns provided a story to [redacted] eventually explaining the child was dead or likely dead having drowned,” according to the court document. “When Manns realized she hadn’t called 911 or sought assistance in any other way, she called 911 herself while frantically driving to the apartment. She arrived moments before the cops and discovered the child on the bathroom floor.”
Manns eventually left the apartment before law enforcement arrived, and he was arrested in Orlando.
Meanwhile, a dispatcher attempted to contact the adult who had witnessed the boy’s final moments in order to provide him with CPR instructions, but Manns had already fled, according to police. Despite his absence, the boyfriend allegedly left a note explaining that he had a seizure and passed out while giving Jameson a bath. When Manns awoke, he claimed that the boy was floating in the water, dead. The note stated that Manns performed CPR, but “nothing worked,” according to the affidavit.
“Investigators made observations about the apartment that there were empty bottles of children’s Tylenol and dosing cups all over the apartment, as well as rags wrapped around bags of water as if they had been frozen and used as cold compresses,” according to the declaration. “The observations led the investigators to believe that the child may have been receiving treatment at home, rather than being taken to a clinic, doctor or hospital.”
The medical examiner determined that Jameson died of cardiac arrest. The affidavit states that “no evidence of drowning” was discovered.
As it turned out, Sunshine State authorities were aware of at least some of Jameson’s treatment long before his death.
The Florida Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) conducted an investigation in February 2019 after the boy broke his leg in a “unwitnessed event,” according to the affidavit.
The boy’s biological father later filed a petition to establish paternity and gain access to his son, a legal process that was still ongoing at the time Jameson died, according to the affidavit.
In March 2021, Jameson broke his leg again. Once again, child welfare agents conducted an investigation. This time, the adult in the boy’s life claimed he had fallen off a curb. The medical examiner disputed this claim after Jameson died. According to law enforcement, the second broken leg alerted DCF authorities to several “suspicious” incidents in the child’s life, including “injuries to his face” discovered the last day he attended day care.
“The story was that the family had been spending time by the pond and the child fell, rolled into or near the water and was attacked by a duck,” according to the petition.
Law enforcement also pointed out that Dotson and Manns discussed punishing Jameson in a series of text messages.
From the affidavit at length:
[E]pisodes were frequent, with Manns complaining that the child victim was not using the toilet; this would lead to punishment of the child and Manns would complain that the child would hit Josh (6′ tall, 200 lbs), head-butt him and bite him. This would cause for more punishment of the child with [redacted] being aware and [redacted] texting her support of Josh when dealing with [redacted] such as “Love you, appreciate you always dealing with him for me.” Another time after Manns had texted her that “he’s in big trouble” “he (victim) was losing it, going crazy,” with [redacted] texting during this episode “F’him,” “he’s being a jerk, put him to bed, no fun today” at 1:00 pm. While many of their text messages ended with “I love you” to each other, during the texts the child victim was referred to as a “jerk” or “sorry he’s being suc[h] a d—.”
Prosecutors claim Manns had long abused Jameson, and Dotson was aware of it but did nothing to stop it. A judge terminated their trials in June.
The mother’s trial starts on Wednesday.
