HONOLULU (Court TV) — The parents of an infant who was killed by an overdose of Benadryl at an illegal daycare will be getting a payout from the U.S. government after a settlement in their civil case.
Dixie Denise Villa appears in court Nov. 7, 2024. (Court TV)
Dixie Denise Villa was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of 7-month-old Abigail Lobisch, who had been in her care overnight from Feb. 23-24, 2019. Villa told police that she had fed Abigail at about 10 p.m. on Feb. 23 and found the child lifeless and cold when she woke up the next morning.
For years before Abigail’s death, Villa ran a daycare out of her home on the Aliamanu Military Reservation, where her husband worked as a chief petty officer. A lawsuit filed by Abigail’s parents, James and Anna Lobisch, named both the U.S. government and the military base’s property management company as defendants, accusing them of failing to intervene and shut down the illegal business.
Regulations require anyone running a daycare on the military base to do so under the direction of Child and Youth Services’ Certified Family and Child Care Program (FCC), but Villa failed to do so. Villa ran a similar daycare, which was shut down in 2015, at the previous naval base where she and her husband lived.
In 2017, after Villa began running a daycare out of her new home at the Aliamanu Military Reservation, a neighbor, identified as K.C. in court documents, contacted military personnel and the FCC office to report disturbing sights at Villa’s home. Those signs included a little boy crying because his head was stuck in a play structure and the boy “had been essentially abandoned until other little children were able to free him,” and a 5-year-old child attempting to set a trampoline on fire with a lighter. Despite consistent reports, complete with video and photo evidence, Villa’s daycare continued to operate. K.C. told investigators in 2018 that Villa was leaving the children — as many as nine — alone in the home with a teenage exchange student. On multiple occasions, military police were sent to Villa’s property, but the daycare was not shut down.
Anna Lobisch delivered a victim impact statement at Dixie Denise Villa’s sentencing. (Court TV)
The Lobischs’ lawsuit said that in 2018, months before Abigail’s death, the Army had issued two “cease and desist” orders to Villa to shut down the daycare. Those orders were allegedly ignored.
In its filing stipulating to a $900,000 settlement, the U.S. government said the money should not be “construed as an admission of liability or fault on the part of the United States, its agents, servants or employees, and it is specifically denied that they are liable to plaintiffs.”
The lawsuit also named Island Palm Communities, LLC, the property management group responsible for maintaining the residential properties on the base. Court records reviewed by Law&Crime indicate the parties are “continuing to work on finalizing their settlement agreement terms and conditions.”
At Abigail’s autopsy, doctors found 2,400 nanograms per milliliter of diphenhydramine — the active ingredient in Benadryl — in her bloodstream, nearly double the amount considered lethal for infants. At Villa’s trial, Anna Lobisch said she was not made aware of any prior issues at Villa’s daycare until the day her daughter died.
Villa’s daycare was shut down after Abigail’s death on Feb. 24, 2019.
Villa is serving her sentence at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua, Hawaii, according to prison records.
