Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio Man Killed Toddler By Slamming Her on Floor: Police

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

15-month-old Vivian Gardner was rushed to the hospital last month after her babysitter found her unconscious on the floor of her bedroom. Police in Piqua, Ohio said the babysitter's husband, Michael Mayor, confessed to slamming Vivian on the floor several times when she wouldn't stop crying. Vivian later died and Mayor is now charged with murder. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the tragic case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Marian Braccia https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-braccia-024634133/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A 15-month-old little girl dies from a severe head injury and police say her babysitter's significant other is to blame. I have the tragic case of Vivian Gardner. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Vivian Gardner was a cute 15-month-old toddler, and what happened to her is every parent's worst nightmare, or at least one of them. Vivian's mother dropped her off at a babysitter's house last month in Piqua, Ohio, and later that afternoon, Vivian was rushed to the hospital. The police incident report paints a terribly sad picture of what went on inside the house that morning. Vivian Gardner's babysitter told police that she left to take her children to school around 10 a.m. and left Vivian and three other children she babysits at home with Michael Mayer, her significant other. The woman and Vivian's names are redacted from the incident

report. The report says, when she returned home, Michael told her Vivian was tired, so he put her down for a nap in their bedroom on the floor. The woman stated she checked on her and found her on the floor and she appeared to be asleep. The woman stated she checked on her several times throughout the day and found that Vivian was still sleeping in the same spot. The woman stated around 1500 hours, she started to get concerned because Vivian had not woke up.

So she went in to wake her. The woman stated it was at that time she found her breathing was shallow and she was unresponsive. Both the woman and Michael denied knowing what happened to cause this to happen. The woman was able to provide video from her net view camera in the living room that

showed Michael picking Vivian up at 1030 hours and walking her to the back bedroom. In the video, Vivian was sitting up and crying. The back bedroom was not on video. Vivian had bruising on her forehead and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors determined she had suffered a skull fracture and other head injuries. A detective wrote that the injuries would have left Vivian unconscious. Michael Mayer was quoted as telling a police officer at the scene that Vivian may have hit her head on the dresser in the bedroom. He also suggested that the children can be rambunctious and he didn't know whether one of the other children had hit Vivian in the head. And there was video, remember, from the home. Officers started looking through that video and talking with Mayer's

significant other, Vivian's babysitter. The report says about Vivian, while sitting on the floor, she continued to have her arm up, her hand blocking her face. I asked about this and the woman stated this was normal for Vivian. And she does that when she is hiding from Michael. She stated at the beginning of her watching Vivian, she got along with Michael. The woman stated something happened several months ago and now every time Michael comes into the room and she hears his voice, she tries to hide her face. Michael stated in September,

he stopped trimming his beard and it was around this time frame she began acting differently around him. The woman stated she got a text message from someone over Thanksgiving saying, let Mike know Vivian does not like her dad's family as well. She stated it was like a running joke with them because they did not know what changed. I want to tell you about a great free app that gets you cash back on things like gas and groceries and restaurants. It's called Upside. This is real cash back. It's money that appears in your Upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account. I used Upside recently when I went to Dunkin' Donuts for a cup of tea. I claimed an

offer for Dunkin' on the app. I paid as usual using a card and followed the steps and I got cash back. It's so easy. You can also use Upside at places like Shell, Exxon, 7-Eleven, Taco Bell, and that's just to name a few. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan the QR code on your screen and use our promo code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for extra cash back. Police said they determined that Michael Mayer was the last person with Vivian that morning, so they went to arrest him. They read him his rights, and they said he eventually confessed to hurting Vivian. The detective wrote,

after talking with Michael for some time, he admitted to injuring Vivian. Michael stated he took her to the bedroom to lay down for a nap. He stated when he sat her down, she would not stop crying. Michael stated he walked over to where Vivian was and picked her up while he was on his knees. He stated he shook her, and when she cried louder, he began to slam her on the floor of the bedroom. He stated this was not done on the blankets, and he did this several times until she stopped crying. Michael stated he thought she fell asleep, so he put her down and walked away. At this time, Michael was crying and began saying he did not deserve to live. Detectives said that Mayer made the admissions after first claiming he didn't hurt Vivian, but telling detectives that he took responsibility for her injuries. The incident report goes on to

say, once Michael confessed, he began talking about how he did not deserve to live anymore and how I should just let Vivian's parents into the room to beat him to death. Michael went on to say the reason he didn't come forward with what he did was because he was afraid his wife would get into trouble. I asked him if he told her what he did and he stated no. Michael stated she had no idea what he had done and never told her afterwards. Now, earlier I told you there were cameras in the home. Michael Mayer's wife, the babysitter, wrote an email to police after watching one of them. The report quotes the email as saying, hi, sorry this is delayed. It took me a while to stomach the nerve to listen to this again.

You hear in the beginning a loud crash, which I am unable to determine if it was him or the kids playing, but right after you can hear Vivian screaming in the background. I never watched the entire footage before, just of him walking down the hallway. I watched more Friday evening, which is when I told Weber I wanted him to do this. After he comes out of the room, he is speaking to the kids and I can hear the distress in his voice and him wandering around the living room fidgeting with things. You can tell he was nervous and he was not like that when I got home. I never suspected anything was wrong with Vivian. Michael Mayer was booked into the Miami County Jail on charges of felonious assault

and endangering children. From there, police said he called his mom and confessed again. The police report quotes Mayer as saying, I'm guilty of hurting that baby. I got, I threw her across the room, like onto the floor and hurt her. I didn't know she was hurt. I thought she was asleep, but I hurt her and I did it. The babysitter wasn't even home. So I just want you to know the truth. The report says Mayer went on to tell his mother, My temper got the best of me. I should have never even been there watching these kids, but I was just trying to help her out. They wouldn't stop crying, and I took her into the other room. After several minutes, I picked her up and kind of slammed her down and was like,

Go to sleep. And I walked out of the room, and when I came back in, she appeared to be sleeping. She looked like she was breathing. I didn't know she was hurt. I just want you to know, don't give the babysitter any grief. Like I'm being coerced into saying anything because I'm not. Vivian Gardner passed away on December 19th as her mother held her. Her obituary says her family called her razzle-dazzle. They remembered her for her smile, her love of chocolate donuts and steak, and movies like Finding Nemo. Michael Mayer was charged earlier this week with three counts of murder. I reached out to his lawyers. At the time of this recording, they have not yet responded. Marion Bracha is a former prosecutor, also a

professor of law at Temple University School of Law. So Marion, this case is just awful. And according to the paperwork, there are several admissions that the defendant in this case, Michael Mayer, made. Right. So it looks like he gave a post-Miranda statement to investigators, which means that he was advised of his constitutional rights to remain silent and waived those rights and admitted to the wrongdoing that led to this child's injury and later death. It sounds like investigators pulled the recordings of prison calls wherein Mayer spoke to his mother and admitted to her his actions that led to the child's injury. So it doesn't really sound like there's any denial of responsibility here.

And there have been, as we just mentioned, several admissions of his own wrongdoing that certainly will be, can be, and will be used against him as admissions of wrongdoing. What's so sad about this case is the fact that Michael Mayer is the significant other of the babysitter. And so the babysitter, according to the documents, leaves to take her children to school. And according to everything police found in their investigation, this child, Vivian, and other children are left there alone with him. And for whatever reason, he gets upset and takes the child, takes Vivian into the bedroom. And just these awful things happen. There are video recordings that the police say back up what they claim. You know, you can hear her hear her i mean it's just

heartbreaking to me um you know and it sounds like too that this child was afraid of him according to what you know i was reading i'm sure you read the same thing um so there may have been a history here of some things going on um yikes i mean, I don't know if parents can learn anything from this. Obviously, these parents of Vivian trusted the babysitter. They were leaving their precious little girl with her, and she leaves just for a short amount of time, and police say this happened. Yeah, I think that the takeaway is that we really need to be mindful and very aware and cautious of who is responsible for childcare. If you trust a babysitter, then that's the person that you are entrusting your child to, that babysitter.

It doesn't mean that that babysitter can then pass on their responsibility to someone else. Now, of course, I am a parent. I'm sure there are plenty of parents who are listening to this who may have limited options as far as child care goes. And so sometimes, depending on the situation, there needs to be a substitute. And I completely understand that. But as you mentioned, it does sound like there was some longstanding kind of anxiety on the part of this child when it came to Michael Mayer. I read in the interviews that it was because he was throwing his beard out and maybe his appearance had changed. And that's why the child was a little off put by him. But I'm wondering if the morning of her injury and the morning when that led to her untimely death, I'm wondering if she was crying and she was upset because she was left

alone with Michael Mayer. It sounds like from his interview that he was trying to say that she was tired, that she needed a nap, that she was kind of cranky, and that's why he was trying to put her down. But I'm wondering if her state of upset started just because she was alone with him. And the other thing that kind of concerns me about this case is, you mentioned the video recordings. There was a video camera that was positioned in what I'm envisioning was the living room, the sitting room, a common area. But there were other video cameras that were directed more towards the back room where the child's injury occurred. And I think I read in the investigative paperwork that that video camera was unplugged and wasn't recording. And I'd be interested in the timing on that, when the camera was unplugged, why it was unplugged and wasn't recording. And I'd be interested in the timing on that, when the

camera was unplugged, why it was unplugged, if there were children who were being placed in that back room to take a nap or even just for a timeout, why wasn't that video camera plugged in and recording the whole time? So that is a hole in the investigation that I hope gets answered eventually. Yeah, most certainly. You know, this child, I mean, it said in the paperwork as well that Michael Mayer at first, you know, said he was responsible, but then didn't make any admissions. But then as the interview went on, he did. These were horrific injuries. I mean, this is a 15 month old child. I mean, a little girl and she was left to lay in the bedroom for hours, uh, taking a nap, um, when she was not napping, she was obviously gravely injured. Um, so I, I just am stunned, uh, by the fact that this happened at all. I mean, at a babysitter's house,

I cover these things, sadly, all of the time. So I know these things can happen. But just the fact that mom leaves to take children to school and then a significant other is left with this child and this whole thing unfolds. I don't know, Marianne, I mean, is this something that you saw a lot in your prosecution, you know, your time as a prosecutor, children being injured like this by babysitters or people entrusted to care for them? So unfortunately, that is something that comes up a lot in child abuse cases and if if this child had survived which of course was the hope and the prayer throughout her care and her treatment at the hospital the the hardship of prosecuting a case like this is is having the evidence to present about

what specifically happened because the 15 monthold isn't going to be able to testify, won't be deemed competent to testify, to give her recitation of the facts that led to her injury. And so the question when it comes to neglect cases or abuse cases, when it comes to those who are left with the responsibility of protecting the welfare of a child is how then do you prove it? If there was no one else home, if there was no one else in the room, if this was a closed door bedroom where the video camera wasn't plugged in and wasn't recording, how do you prove that this was an intentional infliction of bodily injury? How do you prove that this wasn't an accident?

Of course, we have his admissions, but I'm talking about in a scenario where this child would have survived or a scenario where he hadn't made these admissions and hadn't admitted his own wrongdoing. How could this case have been proven to show that it was Michael Mayer and not one of the other children or not the babysitter herself or not a trip and fall or an injury that occurred in the bedroom? So there are issues of proof that compound the really heartbreaking nature of this because you want to do justice, certainly for the victim, certainly for her family. But at the same time, we have a rule of law that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And developing those pieces of proof is often the challenge in cases like this.

You know, they have his admissions both on a jail call and in the post-Miranda interview. And plus, you have the corroborating evidence of the videos that do capture a little bit of the timeline, the medical testimony. I've reached out to the attorney for Michael Mayer at the time of this recording. They have not yet responded. You know, just to get a comment from them, he's now charged with murder. He had initially been charged with, you know, endangering children, felonious assault. How do you defend this? You know, obviously, we're very early in the process. There are charges that he's facing. They haven't received the discovery, but this seems like a tough one. Well, remember, of course, in our system, a defendant has an absolute right to a trial

and enjoys the absolute presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty on all elements of all charges beyond a reasonable doubt. That is our constitutional standard. So we can talk about this in the context of a conversation, but when we step into a court of law, he is shrouded in those presumptions and those protections. So how do we defend this case? Well, maybe his attorney, if he does intend to try the case, if he does intend to challenge the charges, will argue motions to suppress the post-Miranda statement. Maybe he will argue that this was not a knowing and voluntary waiver of constitutional rights. Maybe there will be some other suppression or challenge to the jail

house recording of the phone call to Michael Mayer's mother. And then without those two admissions, what we are left with is medical testimony and police investigative testimony about where the child was found what injuries were were were incurred and then then the issue becomes proof how do you prove how these injuries were inflicted and without the two statements without the two admissions from Michael Mayer, that becomes a little bit more challenging. So if I were the defense attorney in this case, I would be thinking about a strategy, if any, to eliminate those admissions of wrongdoing, or I'd be having a conversation with the prosecutor to see if there are any admissions on the record that Michael Mayer could make, if he could plead guilty, if there are lesser included charges, if there is some negotiation that can be made that would allow Michael Mayer to see the light of day again before his natural death.

But those are kind of all the things that I'm sure the defense team is thinking about currently. We will keep an eye on it. Thank you so much, Marion Bracha, for coming on as always. Thank you, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.