Mother charged in son’s death faced previous charge of child neglect

A Summerfield mother charged in the death of her 17-month-old son had faced a previous charge of child neglect.

Tracie Renee Puskac, 36, was taken into custody Monday in the death of her son, Jermiyah Puskac. She is facing a charge of second degree murder and continues to be held without bond at the Marion County Jail.

In 2020, Puskac had been arrested after biting the arm of her then-72-year-old mother during a fracas at the family home in Summerfield. When Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, Puskac’s mother was in the garage bleeding from the arm while Puskac was holding her child, who was 18 months old at the time, in one arm and hammer in the opposite hand.

When the deputy tried to take control of Puskac and safely remove the child, Puskac clenched the child and resisted the deputy’s efforts. The child was screaming in pain, according to the arrest report. At the time of that arrest, Puskac admitted the child would likely be left with a “mental scar.”

Later that same year, the prosecutor’s office announced it would not be pursuing charges in the case.

This past April 27, emergency personnel responded to the Puskac home in Summerfield, in reference to an unresponsive infant, later identified as Jermiyah. The infant was initially transported to AdventHealth Belleview ER, then subsequently transported to UF Health Shands Hospital for treatment.

Puskac informed detectives that Jermiyah was banging his head on the floor at approximately 8:30 p.m. the previous night, so she moved him to a safe spot and held him down. Then, at 10 p.m., he became “stiff as a board,” at which point she put him to bed. Puskac claimed that when she woke up the following day at approximately 7 a.m., Jermiyah’s lips were blue and his breathing shallow, so she had her mother call 911.

Over the course of several interviews with Puskac, her versions of the night’s events continued to change, giving detectives different accounts of how Jermiyah hit his head. Detectives inquired as to why Puskac did not call 911 when the infant became “stiff” the previous night. Puskac stated she did not want the Department of Children and Families to come and take her children away again. DCF has an open case with Puskac and had previously removed the children from the home.

Jermiyah ultimately succumbed to his injuries on April 29. On July 7, the 8th Circuit Medical Examiner’s Office provided the autopsy results, concluding that Jermiyah died from complications of a skull fracture, subdural hemorrhage, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injury due to abusive head and neck trauma. Due to these injuries, it was determined the manner of death was a homicide. An investigation determined that Jermiyah’s injuries were too severe to be caused by any of Puskac’s scenarios, and an arrest warrant for Puskac was obtained.