A Bronx mother faces manslaughter charges in the drowning death of her 11-month-old daughter last summer after detectives discovered she left the newborn unsupervised in a bathtub for more than 90 minutes, authorities said Saturday.
Authorities have reported that while Victoria Rivera was out running errands, her daughter, Jazeli Mirabal, tragically drowned in the bathtub at their apartment on West Farms Road near Boone Ave. in Crotona Park on August 14th.
Bronx prosecutors have charged the 31-year-old mother, indicting her on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and endangering the welfare of a child.
“[She] left her baby alone in a bathtub with water for an hour and a half while she went grocery shopping and picked up her other two children from daycare,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “This was a callous disregard for the safety of her baby.”
Bronx Criminal Court Judge George Villegas made the decision to release Rivera without bail during the arraignment on Friday. However, as a precautionary measure, the mother was placed under house arrest and required to wear an ankle monitor to ensure her movements are monitored until her next court appearance next month.
Investigators discovered that Rivera had left Jazeli home alone for extended periods of time before the tragic event of the child’s death.
When Rivera returned to her apartment at 7:40 p.m. on August 14, she was observed sprinting down the building’s corridor with Jazeli’s limp body in her arms, according to startled neighbors.
“My baby’s dead!” she wailed as she sought help, neighbor Frank DeJesus recalled.
“We opened the door and we see that she’s screaming on the floor in the hallway. Our neighbor was holding the baby,” DeJesus said. “The baby was purple.”
DeJesus immediately dialed 911 and passed on the operator’s instructions to the neighbors who had hurried to help the child.
“Another neighbor came up and he grabbed the baby, and I was on the phone with 911,” DeJesus recalled. “They were telling me what to do, and I was telling him what to do.”
During the incident, DeJesus recounted how another neighbor quickly approached and took hold of the baby. She vividly remembered being on the phone with the emergency services, with them providing instructions while she relayed them to the neighbor.
According to DeJesus, the baby remained unconscious even though CPR was performed, and she even spat out water during the process.
In November, the medical examiner of the city officially classified Jazeli’s death as a homicide.
According to a close friend of her mother, Jazeli, a cheerful and thriving baby girl, was adored by her older sisters, aged 2 and 4.
“She had a pretty face,” the friend said. “She looked more like her dad. She has two older sisters and they always played with her. They loved their sister.”
The family had never been in contact with the police or the Administration for Children’s Services before.
The Legal Aid Society, who represented Rivera during her arraignment, did not respond to an email on Saturday.
