{"id":230825,"date":"2026-04-14T05:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230825\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:50:11","slug":"florida-parents-accused-of-staging-babys-death-after-infant-was-left-restrained-in-bathtub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230825\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Parents Accused of Staging Baby\u2019s Death After Infant Was Left \u2018Restrained\u2019 in Bathtub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The parents of a 3-week-old baby boy, who authorities determined died of suffocation, staged the newborn\u2019s death after he had been \u201crestrained\u201d and left alone in a bathtub at a South Florida home, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts were arrested Wednesday, April 10, in connection with their son\u2019s death<\/a> in Hollywood in August 2025, according to police, WTVJ reported.<\/p>\n

Garcia, 21, and Watts, 25, are each charged with aggravated child manslaughter, child neglect involving bodily harm, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, failure to report a death to a medical examiner, and giving false information to law enforcement, court records viewed by Us Weekly show.<\/p>\n

A public defender representing Garcia and Watts did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday, April 13.<\/p>\n

According to an arrest affidavit viewed by Us, Garcia and Watts\u2019 baby was found \u201cunresponsive\u201d in a playpen at a home in Hollywood on August, 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

Florida Mother Pleads Guilty After Allegedly Watching Baby Slowly Asphyxiate<\/a><\/p>\n

The newborn was declared dead by first responders who arrived at the residence, the affidavit says.<\/p>\n

During an investigation, Garcia and Watts allegedly repeatedly lied about the circumstances of their newborn\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Watts initially told authorities that before their son died, he left the home for a job interview and that Garcia \u201cfed the baby, changed the diaper, cleaned the baby with baby wipes and put powder on him and then placed him into the playpen,\u201d the affidavit says.<\/p>\n

Later, following several \u201cdiffering stories\u201d as to how her son died, Garcia admitted that she staged her baby\u2019s death to make it look like died while sleeping, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

She said that on August 1, she put her newborn in the playpen so he could go to sleep while she slept, but her son kept crying despite her attempts to soothe him, the affidavit says.<\/p>\n

Garcia then described how she placed her baby in a car seat and put him in a bathtub, where he was left alone, crying, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe placed the baby\u2019s gray pacifier in his mouth, wrapped him in the blanket tightly, securing the pacifier in his mouth to prevent him from spitting it out, and strapped him into the car seat,\u201d the affidavit says. \u201cShe then entered the bathroom and placed the car seat with the baby in it, inside of the bathtub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, Garcia played lullaby music, left the baby in the bathroom and went to her bed, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Parents Let 22-Month-Old Son Die With \u2018Pieces of His Bed\u2019 in His Throat, Told 911 He Was \u2018Beyond Help\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCrystal said the music was very loud; she could still hear the baby crying over the music, but very faintly,\u201d the affidavit says.<\/p>\n

Then she fell asleep, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Later that morning, she awoke and first spoke to her mother for about 30 minutes before checking on her son, the affidavit says.<\/p>\n

When she checked on the infant, Garcia said he was \u201cvery pale\u201d and that she \u201cknew it was dead,\u201d according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough Crystal\u2019s sworn admission, corroborated by physical evidence, digital evidence, and witness statements, it was determined that she intentionally restrained the baby,\u201d the filing notes.<\/p>\n

Investigators determined Garcia and Watts both staged the crime scene by putting their dead son into a playpen in an effort to \u201cmake it appear as though the baby died in his sleep,\u201d the affidavit also says.<\/p>\n

They both allegedly admitted to this.<\/p>\n

The newborn died as a result of negligence and suffocation, according to the filing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of a 3-week-old baby boy, who authorities determined died of suffocation, staged the newborn\u2019s death after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14772,103406,103405,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-230825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-affidavit","tag-anfernee-watts","tag-crystal-garcia","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}