Bradenton mother pleads no contest to manslaughter after strangling death of 4-year-old
A Bradenton woman accused of killing her 4-year-old daughter over a decade ago pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges Monday.
Dominique Brewer, 43, entered a plea of no contest in a Manatee County courtroom Monday to charges of manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter of a child, court records show. She was initially charged with second-degree murder in connection to the 2009 killing of her daughter and was set to go to trial this week.
When deputies with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office arrived at Brewer’s home on Aug. 14, 2009 to find 4-year-old Kelis Shontay Rucker lifeless in the closet, she was already cold to the touch, her jaw was stiff and hospital workers later found marks on her neck suggesting she may have been strangled, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Brewer gave detectives conflicting explanations about what happened, but “admitted to drug use prior to the incident” and “gave no viable explanations as to injuries that the child received,” the sheriff’s office said in a 2019 statement.
In the five different explanations she gave to the initial detective, the one consistency Brewer gave detectives was that she was home alone with the child at the time.
“Dominique’s first statement was that she swears on her life she didn’t hurt her baby and she doesn’t want us to think she’s a murderer,” the initial detective wrote in a capias request recommending the mother be charged in 2009 with child neglect. “At this point, there had not been any conversation with Dominique indicating the death was not a mere accident.”
Mother charged 10 years after death
In 2009 when investigators asked Brewer to explain the death of her daughter, an apparent victim of strangulation, she said Kelis had been pretending to be a ballerina and was playing with a pink and purple scarf “that she loved to wear,” a child welfare report said.
But deputies were skeptical. The sheriff’s office said the scarf was found hidden under a comforter on Kelis’ bed and not near the closet where she was found.
The Manatee County Medical Examiner was also unconvinced by Brewer’s explanation, the Bradenton Herald previously reported. The medical examiner told investigators the autopsy findings suggested “it was likely the mother played a more active role in the child’s death.”
The autopsy concluded that the child died of asphyxia and neck compression, and also had sustained “blunt impact” to her head.
Brewer was a longtime suspect in the death of her daughter but wouldn’t face charges until she was arrested 10 years later in June 2019.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said they began re-examining “all aspects of the case” in 2017, holding “numerous meetings” with prosecutors who had declined to press charges against Brewer initially in 2009.
New evidence in death investigation
A new witness, a friend and neighbor of Brewer’s at the time of Kelis’ death, may have played a role in the State building a case in 2019 when charges came. The woman had been at Brewer’s home and smoked marijuana with her before going back home around 3 to 4 p.m. and at that time Kelis was alive, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Brewer’s neighbor did not see the girl again until she heard commotion from outside and saw her unresponsive on the living room floor.
But the death would remain unsolved for over a decade.
Brewer is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 31 at 1:30 p.m., according to court records.
The maximum penalty for aggravated manslaughter of a child is life in prison, according to Florida statutes.
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 4:01 PM.
