Ex-caregiver charged with aggravated manslaughter in 2023 choking death of autistic man at Fort Lauderdale group home

Fort Lauderdale police have arrested a former caregiver at a group home for adults with disabilities on a charge of aggravated manslaughter in the June 2023 death of a 26-year-old resident with autism, more than three years after the man died. Jimmy Alexis, 43, of northwest Miami-Dade County, was taken into custody Tuesday, Oct. 6, by the department's Fugitive Unit on a warrant, police said.

According to arrest documents described by WTVJ NBC 6 and WPLG Local 10, a co-worker told investigators that Alexis choked the resident to the point of unconsciousness twice during a single overnight shift, and she played officers an audio recording she said she made during the second episode. Alexis told police he had to "restrain him, not choke him," according to the arrest form quoted by Local 10. His attorney said in court Wednesday that Alexis denies the allegations.

NBC 6 identified the resident as Jason Similien, citing his family's attorney. Fort Lauderdale police did not publicly name him.

The charge

Alexis faces a charge of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled adult, according to Local 10. Under Florida law, that offense applies when a caregiver causes the death of an elderly person or disabled adult through culpable negligence, and it is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Police said a death investigation determined foul play was involved and that the department worked with the Broward State Attorney's Office to formally charge Alexis. As of Wednesday morning he was being held at the Broward Main Jail on a $25,000 bond, Local 10 reported. NBC 6 reported that he appeared before a judge Wednesday and later made bond.

A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide in November 2023, according to Local 10, though the specific cause of death was redacted from the arrest form.

What police say happened that night

The incident happened June 30, 2023, at the Genuine Love and Care Group Home on Northwest Sixth Place in Fort Lauderdale, Local 10 reported. Rescue crews were called about a resident who was unresponsive, and officers then opened a death investigation.

When investigators interviewed Alexis, an employee at the home, he acknowledged restraining the resident, according to the arrest documents. The home's owners told officers the man had psychosis and anxiety, NBC 6 reported, and Local 10 reported that the owners said he was prone to harming himself by banging his head against objects.

Officers also spoke with a staff member who had been on duty. In the arrest form, they described her as "visibly shaken." When officers left the home, they found her waiting outside, and she asked to speak with them away from the facility, according to Local 10.

She told officers that Alexis had choked the resident until he lost consciousness two times during the night. After she told Alexis not to choke him the first time, she said, she recorded audio during the second incident. Officers said the resident could be heard moaning on the recording she played for them; NBC 6 reported that the recordings captured him choking and moaning.

A recorded phone call

Investigators then had the co-worker place a controlled phone call to Alexis, a common investigative technique in which police listen to or record a conversation with a suspect. During that call, according to the arrest form as quoted by Local 10, Alexis told her what he planned to tell police and advised her "to say the same thing in her own words."

The arrest form says he also cautioned her "not to say things about the logbook because police will want to get a copy" and "not to say anything about the mat" the resident had been lying on, and told her "not to say too many things that would prompt more questions from the police," according to Local 10.

Those statements are allegations in a police document. They have not been tested in court, and Alexis is presumed innocent.

The defense: why now?

In court Wednesday, the attorney representing Alexis questioned the timing of the case, NBC 6 reported. "This just came out of nowhere," the attorney said. "It's very strange to be making an arrest three years later."

Alexis now works elsewhere, according to his lawyer. Police and prosecutors have not publicly explained why the charge was filed more than three years after the death and nearly three years after the medical examiner's homicide ruling.

The attorney also said Alexis denies any wrongdoing.

Family's lawyer points to the home

Adam Finkle, an attorney representing Similien's family, told NBC 6 that Similien had been asking for cookies that night and that, "out of frustration and not being trained adequately, and being in there in the first place when he should have been fired, Jimmy Alexis actually choked and killed Jason."

Finkle said employees had made internal complaints about Alexis before the death and that he was not fired. "This was a specialized place that knew about Jason, knew about Jason's struggles and where he had come from," Finkle said.

Similien's family has filed a civil lawsuit against the group home and the property owners, which is ongoing, NBC 6 reported. The station said it reached out to the home's owners and their attorneys and did not receive a response.

Restraint and the people in Florida group homes

The case adds to a series of Florida prosecutions and lawsuits over deaths and injuries of adults with disabilities in residential care. In Lake County, the family of Caleb Walker, a man with autism, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022 against the operator of the Oconee Group Home in Eustis after he was restrained for nearly 20 minutes during an incident in November 2020 and later died, FOX 35 Orlando reported at the time.

The circumstances of each case differ, and Alexis has not been convicted of anything. Both cases, though, center on the same question that the Similien family's lawyer is raising now: how staff at small residential homes are trained to handle a resident in crisis.

Key facts in the case, as reported so far:

What's next

The Broward State Attorney's Office will now proceed with the case in Broward County circuit court, where Alexis is expected to be formally arraigned and enter a plea. No next court date had been reported as of Thursday. The family's civil lawsuit against the group home and its property owners continues separately, and the criminal case could bring new records about the home's staffing, training and the internal complaints the family's lawyer says were made before the death.

Fort Lauderdale police have not said whether anyone else is under investigation in connection with the death.