## Facts

- A three-year-old child, Shanaya Jones, visited her father and stepmother, Lisa Carroll, for approximately 10 days.
- During the visit, the father repeatedly beat the child, causing visible and progressively severe injuries that ultimately resulted in the child’s death.
- Carroll lived with the father and told police she was the child’s primary caretaker during visits and acted as the child’s mother.
- Carroll did not seek medical care or notify authorities while the abuse continued and delayed calling for assistance until after the child died.
- A grand jury indicted Carroll for endangering the welfare of a child under N.Y. Penal Law § 260.10, based on an omission theory that she failed to protect the child despite being “legally charged with the care or custody” of the child.

## Issues

1. Whether a nonparent caregiver may be “legally charged with the care or custody of a child” under N.Y. Penal Law § 260.10, creating a criminally enforceable duty to act.
2. Whether the grand-jury evidence was legally sufficient to support an indictment for endangering the welfare of a child based on the defendant’s failure to protect the child from abuse by another.

## Decision

- The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the Appellate Division’s order reinstating the indictment.
- The court held that a nonparent may qualify as an “other person legally charged with the care or custody of a child” when the person has assumed significant responsibility for the child’s care.
- The court concluded the grand-jury proof, viewed in the light most favorable to the People, permitted a finding that Carroll assumed a caretaking role and failed to exercise reasonable diligence to prevent abuse.
- The case was permitted to proceed to trial; the court did not determine guilt or innocence.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal omission liability generally requires a legal duty to act; that duty may arise from an assumed custodial or caretaking relationship, not only from biological or formal legal status.
- Under N.Y. Penal Law § 260.10, “other person legally charged with the care or custody of a child” can include a nonparent who has taken on day-to-day responsibility for the child’s welfare.
- An indictment is legally sufficient if, accepting the evidence as true and viewing it favorably to the prosecution, a rational juror could find each element supported by legally adequate evidence.

## Conclusion

The court held that a step-parent or other nonparent caregiver may be criminally liable for child endangerment by omission when the evidence shows the caregiver assumed substantial responsibility for the child and failed to act with reasonable diligence to protect the child from becoming abused or neglected.


People v. Carroll, 95 N.Y.2d 375 (N.Y. 2000)