Mom ignored her son while He drown to death in swimming pool. She focused on her phone instead – Jury

A grand jury in Texas has charged a mother whose three-year-old son drowned at a water park in 2023. She is accused of not paying attention to him while she was on her phone.

Jessica Weaver, 35, is charged with injuring a child, resulting in serious bodily injury, in connection with the death of her son, Anthony Malave... Continue reading here ▶

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

According to police documents, a lifeguard found the boy in four feet of water. He was taken to the hospital but died.

Several witnesses told police that Weaver wasn’t watching her son before he drowned. One witness said they saw someone matching Weaver’s description sitting by the pool, alone on her phone, and “never looking up or paying attention to anything.”

Another witness said they saw the mother “singing along to a song” while lying down and looking at her phone for about seven minutes before her child was pulled from the water.

A third witness told police the boy was swimming alone and wasn’t wearing a life jacket.

In June 2023, Weaver sued the City of El Paso and the company that runs the water park, claiming the park was “severely understaffed” and the lifeguards were “undertrained and had no idea what they were doing” on the day her son drowned.

The lawsuit also claimed that video footage that the City of El Paso was responsible for keeping had been destroyed. The lawsuit says the boy’s death was caused by “collective negligent and grossly negligent conduct.”

Weaver was arrested on these charges in September 2023. Her lawyer, Ryan MacLeod, previously told reporters that Weaver’s arrest was in retaliation for her lawsuit against the city.

MacLeod said, “Unfortunately, after Ms. Weaver filed a lawsuit against the City of El Paso, the retaliatory tactics against her commenced. 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 is still ongoing.