ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A fourth arrest was made on Aug. 4 in the case of a 3-month-old child who died in August of 2025 in what St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigators called one of the worst cases of child neglect they have seen.<\/p>\n
Jason Gunter, 45, was arrested at his home in Mechanicsville, Va., by the U.S. Marshals Service on an outstanding warrant obtained by St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives. Gunter is believed to be the natural father of the infant, whose name the sheriff\u2019s office has not released.<\/p>\n
Gunter was charged with felony child neglect with great harm for his alleged role in the circumstances surrounding the child\u2019s death, according to the sheriff\u2019s office Facebook posting. Gunter is being held without bond in the Hanover County Jail, awaiting extradition to St. Lucie County, according to the Hanover County jail web site.<\/p>\n
Also charged in the case in St. Lucie County are the biological mother, Nicole Marie Maxwell, 27; the child\u2019s grandfather, Robert Arthur Maxwell, 61; and Vikki Nicole Koon, 38, Robert Maxwell\u2019s girlfriend, each on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated child abuse. They are all in the St. Lucie County Jail on $1.5 million bond each, according to the jail web site.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 20, 2025, deputies, detectives, and crime scene investigators with the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce after a 3-month-old child was brought to the emergency room by the child\u2019s grandfather, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office Facebook posting. The infant was pronounced dead on arrival.<\/p>\n
The boy died of dehydration and malnutrition in a mobile home in the 800 block of Silverstream Circle, Fort Pierce which was in bad condition, according to investigators, who found an extreme bug infestation and a lack of food in the home.<\/p>\n
Four other children in the home \u2013 ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old \u2013 were placed in foster care through the state Department of Children and Families, investigators said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A fourth arrest was made on Aug. 4 in the case of a 3-month-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-364680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}