In a tragic case that has gripped Washington state, a toddler named Sarai Brooks attended day care with visible injuries, such as black eyes and bite and burn marks. These signs were deemed to be indicative of “repeated, prolonged abuse” inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend. Despite the legal obligation to report such injuries, day care workers failed to act, according to a jury’s recent decision. Sadly, Sarai subsequently died from this abuse.

“The most painful part of this case is how profoundly preventable it was,” remarked civil attorney Ray Dearie, reflecting on Sarai’s untimely death in 2022, caused by Augustino Maile, her mother’s boyfriend. Maile is now serving a 16-year prison sentence for his crimes.

Both Maile and Sarai’s mother, Jharmaine Baker, faced charges related to the abuse and death of the 2-year-old. In June 2023, Maile admitted guilt to charges of manslaughter and second-degree assault of a child, also admitting to abusing Sarai’s two brothers. Baker, on her part, pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree assault of a child.

The estate of Sarai Brooks launched a lawsuit in December 2024 against the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and Love and Laughter Learning Centers. The lawsuit claimed that these agencies, along with a Puyallup day care Sarai attended, disregarded evident abuse signals and neglected essential actions that might have saved her life. This was highlighted in a press release from the Dearie Law Group.

Following a five-week trial, a Pierce County jury delivered a monumental $130 million verdict, asserting that “systemic failures” within both the child welfare system and the day care were integral to Sarai’s tragic demise. The Dearie press release detailed that the jury assigned liability to both the State of Washington and the day care center.

Documents obtained by Law&Crime reveal that the complaint from Sarai’s estate accused employees at the School Kids Clubhouse day care of failing to report her injuries to authorities, despite their status as “mandatory reporters” under Washington law.

“All it took to save this child’s life was for one person to do their job: a call to a social worker, a report from a mandated reporter, or any attempt at follow-up by the state. Any one of those actions could have saved Sarai’s life,” Dearie blasted.

After he pleaded guilty to killing Sarai and abusing her brothers, Maile claimed at his sentencing that Sarai’s death was an accident. The judge overseeing his case called it “torture,” according to The News Tribune.

“If I could give you more time, I would,” Pierce County Superior Court Judge Angelica Williams told Maile during the sentencing.

Prosecutors said Maile’s abuse included biting the children repeatedly to the point where marks were left on their bodies; burning them; breaking their bones; and beating them. The autopsy performed on Sarai found bruises on her face, arms, thigh, hands, buttocks, feet, and behind her ears. She also had a possible hemorrhage on her spinal cord, according to the Tribune.

“In or about April 2021, Seattle Children’s Hospital employees, agents, or ostensible agents informed DCYF that Sarai J. Brooks had scars, burn marks, bite marks, and other injuries that were consistent with non-accidental injuries,” her estate’s legal complaint says. “Baker had been in a relationship and/or living with Augustino Maile for approximately two and a half years, and that Jharmaine Baker was allowing Augustino Maile to regularly abuse Sarai.”

Pierce County authorities were called to the couple’s home on March 11, 2022, where they found Sarai with “blue lips” and unconscious. She was foaming from her mouth and “bloody paper towels, bloody bed sheets, and fecal and urine-stained bedding were found at the scene,” per the complaint.

An investigation was conducted and law enforcement learned that a restraining order had been issued in 2021 barring Maile from having contact with Baker’s children, including Sarai. “Pierce County law enforcement conducted an investigation and found, among other things, that Augustino Maile had consistently been violating the restraining order … based on evidence easily gathered at the scene,” the complaint says.

The Pierce County medical examiner determined that Sarai’s injuries “were indicative of repeated, prolonged abuse” and concluded that her cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head, per the complaint.

Maile was originally charged with homicide by abuse and two counts of second-degree murder, but those charges were dismissed and reduced to manslaughter as part of the plea deal he received. Sarai’s father, Jalen Brooks, spoke at Maile’s sentencing.

“She was 2 years old,” Brooks exclaimed, before standing in silence for nearly a minute before the judge. “I just don’t know what makes a person, a grown man at that, beat a 2 year old. Still trying to figure that out.”

The civil verdict handed down this week is the “largest of its type in Washington state history,” according to the Dearie Law Group.

“This verdict gives Sarai a voice,” Dearie said. “Sarai did not have a voice while this was happening to her. This jury made sure she has one now and made clear that when institutions fail children like this, there must be accountability.”