Mom Who Allegedly Looked at Phone and Ignored Son While He Drowned to Death is Indicted

The mother of a three-year-old boy who drowned at a water park in 2023, while she allegedly sat nearby and stared at her cell phone, has been indicted by a grand jury in connection with his death.

A Texas grand jury returned an indictment this month against Jessica Weaver, 35, on one count of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury in connection with the death of her son, Anthony Malave.

Anthony drowned on May 13, 2023, at the Camp Cohen Water Park in El Paso, Texas, which the mother and son were visiting for the park’s soft opening.

According to a police complaint affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, the boy was found by a lifeguard in four feet of water and transported to the hospital, where he died.

Numerous witnesses told police Weaver was not paying any attention to her son before he drowned. One of the witnesses allegedly told police that she observed “a person matching the description of the defendant” sitting outside the pool “by herself on her phone, never looking up or paying attention to anything.”

Another witness told police they saw the mother “singing along to a song that was playing” as she lay down and looked at her phone for about seven minutes, before her child was pulled out of the water.

A third witness told police the boy was swimming unattended and not wearing a life jacket.

In June 2023, Weaver filed a negligence and wrongful death civil lawsuit against the City of El Paso and the entertainment company hired to run the park, alleging that on the day of her son’s drowning, the water park was “severely understaffed and that the few lifeguards on duty were undertrained and had no idea what they were doing.”

“Conveniently, the video footage – which Defendant City of El Paso was responsible for maintaining – was destroyed,” according to the suit obtained by PEOPLE.

The boy died, according to the lawsuit, because of “collective negligent and grossly negligent conduct.”

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Weaver was arrested on the charges in September 2023, per the El Paso Times. Her attorney Ryan MacLeod alleged in a previous statement to PEOPLE that Weaver was arrested as retaliation for her lawsuit.

“Unfortunately, after Ms. Weaver filed a lawsuit against the City of El Paso, the retaliatory tactics against her commenced,” MacLeod’s statement said. “It’s political and sad. However, we are confident that through taking depositions and obtaining evidence as we have started to do now, the truth will prevail.”

The civil lawsuit remains pending, per the El Paso Times.

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