Babysitter charged after 3-year-old left in SUV

A babysitter in Martha's Vineyard has been charged after a 3-year-old boy was left unresponsive in an SUV for several hours. The child is now in critical condition. The babysitter, Aimee Cotton, 40, from Oak Bluffs, faces charges of assault and battery on a child with injury and reckless child endangerment. The incident occurred while Cotton was watching the boy and his 1-year-old sister in West Tisbury last Thursday. Around 1:15 p.m., Cotton called 911 to report that the boy was not breathing and was turning blue in the back of her Chevy Tahoe. He was rushed to a local hospital and later flown to a larger hospital in Boston. As of Friday, he remained unresponsive and in critical condition. According to police, Cotton said she brought the children into her home to play, eat, and change diapers. A few hours later, she took them back to the SUV and left them alone while she loaded hockey equipment into the vehicle. Cotton suggested they might have been unattended for 10-15 minutes. However, surveillance footage from Cotton’s home indicates that the children were actually left alone in the SUV for about three hours. Police noted that there was no video evidence showing the children returning to the vehicle after being inside. Cotton later admitted to leaving the kids unsupervised while she did household chores. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to appear in court again on April 28.