Philly Day-Care Operator Gets 5-Year Sentence For Hiding Her Past

Nov. 13--By now, Tianna Edwards, the North Philadelphia day-care operator awaiting trial for her role in the drowning of a 7-year-old in her care, knows her way around a sentencing hearing.

Her record includes convictions for shoplifting, gun charges, and insurance fraud as well as probation stints in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.

But on Thursday, Edwards received her stiffest sentence yet -- five years and three months in a federal detention center for using her sister-in-law's identity to obtain a state child care license that her criminal past would otherwise have prevented her from obtaining.

At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sanchez, a lawyer for the 32-year-old said that since her arrest on state charges last year, his client had worked to turn her life around, acting as a GED tutor, seeking treatment for alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder, and participating in a program for mothers behind bars.

"She's taken a lot of positive steps in prison to better herself," said attorney Michael Giampietro.

Edwards' day-care center, Tianna's Terrific Tots, came under scrutiny in 2012, when one of its wards, 7-year-old Isear Jeffcoat, drowned in a jammed and filthy swimming pool. While Edwards maintained that she was at the business going over payroll records at the time, police said she was gambling at the SugarHouse Casino.

She has remained in custody on state manslaughter charges since June 2013. Her sentencing Thursday came as part of a separate federal case on wire fraud charges filed earlier this year. Edwards spent much of the money her business received from the state Department of Public Welfare on shopping, gambling and travel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Burnes said. She was also collecting welfare at the time.

The case stemmed from a DPW investigation that cataloged not only Edwards' lapses as a day-care operator, but also the failure of its own employees to act on red flags surrounding her business.

Month after month, the state fielded complaints about the day-care center's two locations, one on Germantown Avenue, the other on Rising Sun Avenue, including allegations that Edwards was posing as her sister-in-law, that drugs were being sold out of the facilities, and that an employee once ran through the center with a gun. Some of those claims were never investigated.

State officials ultimately shut down the business' Germantown location for fire-safety violations, broken furniture, and unqualified staff, and cited Edwards for "gross incompetence, negligence, and misconduct."

Still, the Rising Sun location remained open until the child died there on June 29, 2012.

Edwards is scheduled for trial on the manslaughter charge next month. She also is accused in separate cases: one for collecting welfare while hiding the income she received from the state in her sister-in-law's name and another for cashing a check stolen from a church.

As a result of her sentencing Thursday, she could also face new prison time for violating the terms of her probation from a 2012 insurance fraud case, in which she was found guilty of torching a Jaguar she bought in her sister's name.

"When she's out she wants to take care of her kid and stay out of trouble," Giampietro said.

[email protected]

215-925-2649 @jeremyrroebuck

___

(c)2014 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services