Amid the tragedy of losing her eight-month-old daughter, Sanjae Brown is digging through the rubble of collapsed hopes and pain to help the child’s father through his manslaughter and child neglect charges.

Darren Wittick, 24, was charged on December 19, 2022 in connection with the death of their daughter, Timoya Leah Wittick, who he was giving a bath when he left her unattended in the washroom to get something from a room close by. On his return, he found the infant motionless in the tub.

The child was rushed to the Bustamante Hospital for Children by both parents where she was pronounced dead, and an autopsy revealed that she died as a result of drowning.

“I know he didn’t spitefully kill the child. And it reached to a point where people were saying I am putting the man over the baby. Come on, we are human beings. I realise that it will need a stage where he will even need counseling. I am trying to help him. Human beings, they don’t have any love in them. I told him that even if we are going to remain together or not, I am still going to help him out of the situation,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

“It is hard. I lost her and I love her. I cry every day. She was my third child; my third daughter. But I understand. It could have happened to me. Nobody is perfect. So, I will talk out for him.”

Wittick has been in lockup at Denham Town Police Station since January 20, and appeared in the Half-Way Tree Criminal court last Friday for bail application.

Wittick was granted bail and would’ve been able to attend the baby’s funeral today. However, after several mishaps at the court, when he was finally granted bail after 4:00 pm Friday, his family was told that he would not be released until Monday.

The procedure is that after an accused is granted bail, he has to go to the bail desk to have the bail processed. A part of that process is that the surety, [the person bailing the accused] has to get a referral form a Justice of the Peace. Also, there is other administrative work that has to be done at the bail desk in order for the accused to be released. Unfortunately, several sections of the court were already closed, as is customary on a Friday.

Wittick’s mother, Nicola Gentles, got to court early Friday, having completed all her necessary steps, and was ready to take her son home. Gentles cried at the predicament.

“We waited so long at the court just for this. I am grateful for the bail, but the whole point of it was so that he could be out for his baby’s funeral. What kind of system is this?” she lamented.

“He tried to save her. He ran and was pumping her chest and was blowing air in her mouth. He really tried to save her. He loved his daughter. On a Sunday, they go and buy ice cream. He has been involved in his baby’s like since she was born,” she continued, passionately.

Brown too, wanted him to be able to attend the baby’s funeral, lest being absent would cause more regret and self-resentment.

“I was trying to ensure that he is at the funeral, but the judge has to make that decision. If he misses the funeral, it will be worse on him. He has to be there. So, I am just hoping that they give him a chance to come, even though people will stare. But he has to just understand,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Psychologist Dr Leahcim Semaj described the entire situation as “most unfortunate,” and said no legal punishment will compare to what Wittick is already doing to himself.

“This is the most painful thing a parent can experience. Having to bury a child is the most stressful a parent can experience, and when you add to that now that you are associated with the child’s death, you have to live with your own conscience,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“I’m sure many parents can identify with this. Typically, children enjoy baths; they play and blow bubbles and do all kinds of things. Many a time, a parent will just run out to get something. You forgot a rag and you run to get it, or you’re cooking at the same time and you run. You anticipate being right back.”

Further, Brown recalled visiting Wittick at his home in the wee hours of the morning after the incident. She said it was sorrowful.

“I was basically there with him. I stayed with him. That’s why people were saying I am putting him over the baby. I left the station after 2 o’ clock in the early morning and I went down to him. I went in the room and I sat on the bed for a while. When I touched him, him jump up like when somebody is afraid. So, I realise that him have fear. Him cry.”

Overwhelmed, she said it is already hard enough trying to navigate losing an innocent child in such a way, and the vitriolic criticism from the public only fans the flames.

“It is very hard and at times, I am very depressed. I feel drained. I have to just hold myself and pray. I got baptised and I am very spiritual. I told him [Wittick] that he was going through things. He was going through a lot. But people don’t know what people are going through and everybody has something to say. He was going through a lot; even in the community,” she told the Sunday Observer.

The grieving mother added that she is willing to defend Wittick in court if it comes to that.

“I have to talk out for him because there is no one else there to do it for him. And I am the mother. It doesn’t matter what the crowd have to say. A me a di mother. I have all of the say,” she stated, categorically.

“I am willing. I don’t have a problem doing that. I have to do it. I know that he loved her. Mi know him did love him baby. The baby died leaving her passport. I was trying to leave [the island] with her. I was also undergoing a lot, but people don’t know, and everybody has something to say. Spiritually, me and him were going through it hard.”

The charges levied against Wittick, Brown said, are unfair.

“The people in the community tell the police that a woman was there with him. More than likely, they are saying him leave the baby in the water and go do what he is doing in room or whatever. I was not there, but that is the information that they gave the police officers. The police talked out of their mouths that they got information; you know how ghetto people stay.”

Brown lamented that it is an unfortunate situation, as Wittick had kept and bathed the child on many occasions before, and there were no incidents.

“He will ask for her and keep her for a one day. If him bring her today, by later he will say ‘come for her.’ Or he would sleep with her for the night and I go for her the next day. He bathed her before and nothing happened,” she said.

Meanwhile, Semaj said though it is the probable legal course that someone would be charged in such a case, he thinks that psychologically, no legal punishment supersedes what a parent would feel for such an association.

“And on top of that, he’s not able to go to the funeral. The only other things that could be worse is if his partner and relatives are blaming, chastising and ostracising him. The legal aspect of it is almost the smallest component. The biggest mental component is what he is personally experiencing.”