Wealthy coastal enclave nanny charged with manslaughter in toddler's death

A nanny in Martha's Vineyard has been charged with manslaughter after allegedly leaving two young children who were under her care inside her SUV for several hours, resulting in the death of one of the children. 

Aimee Cotton, 41, was arrested on March 13 by authorities on charges of assault and battery on a child with injury and reckless endangerment, according to an arrest report from the Massachusetts State Police. 

She was later charged with manslaughter when one of the children, a 3-year-old, died on March 19. The child has not been named. 

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Cotton called the police in the early afternoon on March 13, reporting that "a child whom she was babysitting was not breathing and turning blue." The Oaks Bluff Police Department first responded to the call, and alerted the state police, who arrived shortly thereafter. 

The victim was initially taken to the Martha's Vineyard Hospital Emergency Room, and later transported by Boston Medflight helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in critical condition.

The victim died six days later. 

The arrest report indicates that Cotton first told responding officers that she and the children had had a relatively normal morning during which she attempted to take them for a walk, but scrapped the idea and took the children home when one of them would not cooperate. 

She said that she took the children back to her home, where they played with toys and ate lunch, and explained that shortly after noon, she began loading her vehicle with hockey equipment and changed the children's diapers in the process, before putting them in the vehicle. 

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Cotton, who was described as "cooperative," told police the children were in the car alone for no more than 15 minutes, and that she called the police around 1:15 p.m. because one of the children looked "sick and ill." 

Shortly thereafter, police obtained a Nest home camera with Cotton's permission, which contained surveillance footage from outside the house. 

That footage told a completely different story. 

Police said that around 9:15 a.m., Cotton could be seen entering the driveway in her 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. She allegedly spent 10 minutes unloading items from the car and bringing them inside, but neither of the children were removed from the car.

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Police said a period of nearly three hours passed without any activity on the Nest footage, before she began loading the SUV with the hockey equipment around noon. Over the course of the next hour, she loaded the vehicle and briefly brought the younger child, who survived, inside the house for about 10 minutes before returning that child to the car. 

That is when she called 911 to report the unresponsive victim. 

The next morning, state troopers brought Cotton in for questioning, where she capitulated and told officers that she left the children in the car for about three hours while she cooked herself food, attended to her personal hygiene, packed her son's hockey equipment and completed other chores. 

The arrest report noted that Cotton showed remorse, but also made excuses for her behavior. 

She was initially arrested on March 14 for assault and battery on a child with injury and reckless endangerment. She was booked into the Dukes County Jail and arraigned later that day.  

On March 20, the day after the child died, she was arraigned in Edgartown District Court on the charge of manslaughter. 

Cotton pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge and posted $21,000 bail. She was released with a GPS ankle monitor. She was also given a mandatory 6 p.m. curfew. 

Cotton faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Her next court date is scheduled for April 3. 

Harrison Barrow III, Cotton's attorney, declined to comment.