Raleigh child's choking death found to be an accident

The death of a 5-year-old Raleigh girl while her family slept was ruled an accident by the Officer of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Jassica Steele died Jan. 21. Family members said she had eaten a rubber suction cup used to hang something on a wall and suffocated while the rest of the family slept. The medical examiner's report confirmed that cause of death.

Jassica's father, Jermaine Kareem Rhyne, 24, and Tiffany Takoa Valentine, 36, both of 3640 Tule Spring St., were arrested after her death and charged with negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. As of Monday, those charges had not been changed or dismissed.

Valentine said Rhyne woke to find the girl dead in a walk-in closet that morning and then laid her lifeless body on their bed. The couple tried to revive the girl but couldn't, Valentine said. Paramedics also were unable to save her.

Valentine said the family had no idea how Jassica died until an autopsy revealed the suction cup in her throat. Valentine said she purchased suction cups to hang Christmas stockings, but the stockings were too heavy, so she put the cups away. She said she has no idea how Jassica found them.

"I am really hurt that this little girl is gone, but I don't feel like this is an act of negligence," Valentine said.

She said she believes the girl's death was a tragic accident, noting that she chewed on everything, from her toys to the blinds in her bedroom.

Valentine and Rhyne also were charged in a Jan. 8 incident in which Jassica burned her hands on a space heater in the home. Warrants state they weren't watching her and then failed to get her needed medical attention.

Valentine said the child went into a room she was not supposed to be in, and that, when they discovered the minor burns, they treated them, and she was fine.