Even though a Bloomington day-care provider had seen 22-month-old Demaris Joseph-Amir Hicks climb out of his playpen and try to climb into another, the provider testified on Friday she didn't think he needed more supervision.

Demaris was found unconscious, tightly buckled into a car seat on Aug. 28, 2008, in the basement of Doris Meeks' home. He died in a hospital two days later from oxygen deprivation.

Meeks, along with her daughter, Harmony S. Newman, ran Mama D's, a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week day care. Mother, 48, and daughter, 21, are charged with three counts each of second-degree manslaughter in connection with child neglect, child endangerment and culpable negligence.

The case is being tried in front of Hennepin County District Court Judge Mary Steenson DuFresne, but Dakota County prosecutors are handling the matter because Hicks was the grandson of an employee in the Hennepin County attorney's office.

Prosecutors argue that Meeks ran a sloppy daycare, was over the license limit for children and couldn't safely supervise them. The defense claims this was a tragic accident, not negligence.

Meeks' lawyer, Craig Cascarano, asked if she felt bad about the death. She testified that she did and started to cry.

Meeks testified that she picked up Hicks and two other babies about 5:30 a.m. from their homes. She said she put him down for a nap at 6:30 a.m., woke him at 8:30 a.m. and fed him oatmeal. At 9:15 a.m., Newman put him down in a basement playpen for a nap, Meeks said.

She said that morning, 23 kids were at her house. Her day care was licensed for 14 at a time. She was required to have two adults in the home. Meeks said she planned to take nine older children to the Mall of America, leaving Newman with the rest.

She acknowledged she couldn't control the parents' schedules, and sometimes there was overlap between the night kids and the day kids. She expected about five of the children to have been picked up by noon, she said.

But before she took the older kids to the mall, Meeks said she drove to the nearby Wal-Mart at about 10 a.m. to get a new telephone, leaving her daughter alone with 23 children. Meeks testified that shortly before 11 a.m., she got a call from her daughter about the boy being hurt.

Assistant Dakota County Attorney Cheri Townsend asked: "Sometimes you just couldn't keep up?" Meeks acknowledged the 28th was a "busy day." Townsend said, "Sounds like it."

She questioned why "this increasingly active" toddler would be put down for a second morning nap only 45 minutes after his first. Meeks said that was his schedule. Townsend asked Meeks whether she wasn't alarmed when weeks earlier she saw Hicks trying to climb into a playpen. Meeks said, "I thought it was hilarious because it showed he was growing."

Given that Hicks was moving more, Townsend asked whether Meeks considered putting audio monitoring equipment in the basement nap area. Meeks said, "It wasn't required."

The prosecutor asked, "Where were you when he climbed into that car seat?"

Meeks said, "Apparently I was out."

Newman, represented by Rick Trachy, did not testify. Closing arguments are to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747