Charges: Roseville couple left balcony door broken, kids unsupervised before toddler’s fatal fall

A Roseville couple is now facing criminal charges after their 15-month-old daughter fell from their apartment balcony and died back in July.

Prosecutors have charged 35-year-old Hanad Hassan Jama and 30-year-old Aisha Ali each with two counts of second-degree manslaughter.

Court records show that a woman and her partner found the toddler “clearly severely injured” on the driveway as they approached the apartment garage at around 2 p.m. on July 6. They called 911, and first responders found the girl unresponsive and bleeding from her head.

Two stories above, police and medics saw a balcony with vertical metal bars. They noted that the sliding door was partially open and the screen was off the track.

As they treated the 15-month-old, a second young child crawled through the safety bars and held onto the outside, prompting officers to yell for the child to go back inside until a woman came and retrieved the toddler.

When officers went up to that second-story unit, Ali was with the 2-year-old that had crawled through the safety bars when officers were below as well as a 5-year-old. The children’s father, Jama, arrived later.

Initially, Ali told officers she was showering and believed Jama was watching the kids when the child fell, but officers found the shower completely dry, charging documents state. Eventually, Jama said Ali was in the bedroom and he yelled out that he was leaving. However, he wasn’t sure she heard him and they both said they assumed the other was watching the kids.

Additionally, court documents state that the couple that found the 15-month-old told investigators the second-story unit’s sliding door and screen had been broken “for several months.”

When officers followed up with a maintenance employee, he said he’d seen children hanging out of the balcony several times over the past year and warned the parents multiple times, something he could prove.

In a recorded call from August 2024, staff told Jama, “You have two small children that are … hanging out of the window … hanging outside of the window above the garage … I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

A month later, another staff member talked to Ali, saying, “We currently have your, I believe it’s your daughter, hanging out the balcony … over the garage door … This isn’t the first time, we actually have multiple people and pictures of this, so please make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Despite those warnings and building policy requiring residents to repair such damage while warning of the danger for a fall, records showed the family never asked management to fix the door or screen, contrary to Jama’s claims.

Jama and Ali are charged via summons and slated to appear in court on Nov. 5. Each manslaughter charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
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