Lisa Maffia’s baby cousin’s death aged one ruled accident after drowning
The baby cousin of So Solid Crew star Lisa Maffia died after accidentally drowning in a hot tub, an inquest has concluded.
Jetson Maffia-Kerbey, who was 21 months old, died on June 12, 2022 just three months before he was due to celebrate his second birthday.
The toddler, son of Lisa’s cousin Crystal Maffia, was suspected to have been trying to retrieve a toy when he accidentally drowned in the hot tub at a family friend’s house.
Nigel Kerbey, Jetson’s father, visited his friend Graham Morgan – who has a three-year-old daughter – with Jetson to spend the day together at an event in the Kent village, where the kids enjoyed fairground rides and ate ice cream.
Upon returning to Morgan’s house at 3pm, they were met by Crystal and Morgan’s partner Brook Jordan, the inquest heard at Maidstone County Hall on Monday.
Brook’s teenage daughter later used the hot tub which is built into the decking in their garden, while the children played.
Kerbey and Morgan then entered the hot tub and allowed the two small children to join them for around 20 minutes. When the two fathers left the tub, they brought the youngsters with them but the lid was not replaced.
At around 5pm, the parents noticed the children had ‘gone quiet’ when Morgan looked over the decking to see his daughter in the hot tub with Jetson lying face down in the water. Morgan quickly pulled Jetson from the water and performed CPR as someone else called an ambulance.
An off-duty officer, who lived nearby, also rushed to the scene and took over CPR after hearing a commotion coming from the garden.
Paramedics arrived soon after and continued resuscitation attempts before transporting Jetson to the the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent at 5:45pm. However, doctors realised they were not able to save the toddler and called Jetson’s time of death at 6:13pm.
Katrina Hepburn, area coroner for central and south east Kent, said: ‘A Kent Police multi-agency strategy meeting was held on June 15 and concluded Jetson most likely entered the hot tub of his own free will, likely to retrieve a toy spade, and drowned as a result.
‘Any question of the wilful neglect of Jetson has been investigated and there is insufficient evidence of any act that would amount to a criminal offence.
‘There was a period of between 30 seconds and five minutes where Jetson entered the hot tub.’
Hepburn continued: ‘A toxicology report found there were no drugs in Jetson’s system, and the post mortem report gave a cause of death of 1A drowning.
‘Nothing identified any natural causes of the death, there were no signs of trauma, so it is reasonable to take the view that Jetson died because of drowning and it seems to have been purely accidental.
‘The children entered the water and although it was a very short period of time this resulted in the tragic conclusion of Jetson sadly drowning. I therefore conclude Jetson’s death was an accident.’
Lisa, 43, broke news of Jetson’s death by paying tribute to her baby cousin in a heartfelt Instagram post.
The musician wrote: ‘My handsome little cousin Jetson. I love you and your mumma. I’m sorry you’re gone so soon. God had a plan for you long before we even met you. I know you’re safely in the hands of god.
‘Until we meet again, sleep well my boy 🕊 💔 🙏🏽 This was not gods plan, god is good.’
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