LeClaire home daycare provider charged in infant’s death waives preliminary hearing

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - A LeClaire in-home daycare provider charged in the death of a 5-month-old baby has waived her right to a preliminary hearing.

Angela Regina Marxen, 56, filed the waiver Monday through her attorney, Steven Hanna, Scott County court records show.

She will be arraigned on May 13. A hearing on a motion to reduce Marxen’s $1 million cash-only bail is scheduled for May 4.

She is charged with first-degree murder, child endangerment resulting in death, and child endangerment.

Around 3:15 p.m. on Feb. 5, 2020, LeClaire police were dispatched to an in-home daycare on Frontier Court for an infant in distress.

First responders discovered a 5-month-old girl who appeared to be unresponsive with labored breathing, police said in a media release. She was transported to a local hospital, where her condition continued to worsen.

According to the release, the baby was then airlifted to Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, where doctors discovered that she had a fractured skull and a brain bleed.

She died four days later at University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. An autopsy determined the cause of the baby’s death was from blunt force injuries of the head.

Marxen ran the daycare and was the caretaker for the baby.

According to an arrest affidavit, she said she dropped the baby while she was carrying her and that 911 was not notified until four hours after the fall and 45 minutes after Marxen admitted she knew the child wasn’t acting correctly.

Medical professionals stated the injuries were not the result of an accidental fall, according to the affidavit.