Police: Baby's
crying irritated sitter

Now she's charged with murder in the boy's death and her own children are in her husband's custody.

[Photo courtesy of the Solis family] Nine-month-old Blake Solis, son of Amy and Louis Solis of Clearwater, was born Aug. 31. His grandmother noticed something was wrong after she picked him up from the babysitter's house in Largo on Tuesday afternoon. He died Wednesday at a hospital.

By JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

LARGO -- When Blake Solis' life ended, the 9-month-old had bruises on his brain and multiple skull fractures.

The injuries came from a babysitter who was irritated that the baby was crying, according to Largo police.

The baby succumbed to his injuries about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Several hours after his death, police arrested Blake's babysitter, 20-year-old Shara Tereza Willhoite. Charged with murder, she was being held Thursday without bail at Pinellas County Jail.

Willhoite was babysitting Blake at her home at 618 34th St. SE in Largo on Tuesday. Arrest records show Willhoite told investigators she hit the baby on the head with a door and injured him by picking him up from the floor and "forcibly placing" him back on the floor to get him to stop crying. "The baby was crying, and she was angry," said Largo police Lt. Carla Boudrot.

Shara Tereza Willhoite, 20, is being held without bail. She was not licensed and did not babysit children for anyone else, police say.

The baby's family and Willhoite and her husband, Phil Willhoite, were friends and neighbors. The Willhoites' neat white house with black trim is three doors from Blake's grandmother's house.

Blake, son of Amy and Louis Solis, was born last Aug. 31. Willhoite began occasionally babysitting Blake several months ago, Boudrot said.

"She would babysit him a couple of times a week," she said. "Usually, the mother had the baby."

Willhoite was not licensed and did not babysit children for anyone else, according to Boudrot. Her two children, a 1-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, were put in the custody of her husband Thursday after a hearing.

Sheriff's Sgt. Greg Tita said his agency's child abuse investigators, who took over the job from the state last year, had no previous contact with Willhoite.

Her family and her attorney, Lou Kwall, declined to comment.

Blake's family gathered Thursday at the home of his grandmother, Kathleen Howdeshell. Relatives watched as detectives went door-to-door talking to people. The child's great-uncle said the family did not want to comment.

Howdeshell picked up Blake from the babysitter's house Tuesday afternoon and noticed something was wrong, police said. She took him to his parents' apartment in Clearwater.

"He was obviously in distress," Boudrot. "She couldn't wake him properly, and he was lethargic."

The child was taken to his pediatrician and then flown by helicopter to the hospital.

Residents of the neighborhood where the Willhoites and Howdeshell live talked in small groups Thursday. They declined to comment.

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