HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Crystal Garcia was 20 years old when her 3-week-old baby died last year, according to an arrest warrant.
Hollywood homicide detectives believe Garcia, now 21, tried to cover up his death with the help of the baby’s father, Anfernee Watts, according to police.
Watts’ mother contacted police to report that Garcia told her that he died while pinned between the bed frame and the mattress, according to an arrest warrant.
“You know, when you see someone, when they have passed? Like, it was like that,” Garcia told police officers on Wednesday as she confessed to accidentally smothering the baby, according to a police report.
The couple, who also has a 2-year-old child, appeared in court on Thursday in Broward County. A judge denied them bond.
Watts, 25, and Garcia “admitted to fabricating a story to present to law enforcement, placing the deceased baby back into the playpen in an effort to make it appear as though the baby died in his sleep,” a police officer wrote, according to an arrest warrant.
Their son was born on July 11 at Memorial Regional Hospital, according to police.
A pediatrician reported the baby boy was in good health on July 28, according to the arrest warrant. The tragedy unfolded a few days later.
Watts told police officers that he had attended a job interview, but the alleged interviewee said that was false, according to the arrest warrant.
“She intentionally restrained the baby by tightly wrapping him in a blanket, securing a pacifier in his mouth, and strapping him into a car seat before placing him inside a bathtub and isolating him behind a closed door while loud music played,” and she “willfully ignored his distress and failed to check on him for several hours,” a detective wrote, according to the warrant.
The couple allegedly tried “placing the deceased baby back into the playpen in an effort to make it appear as though the baby died in his sleep,” a detective wrote, according to an arrest warrant.
Hollywood Fire Rescue personnel pronounced him dead at 1:50 p.m. on Aug. 1st, in a house at 6660 Thomas St., records show.
Police officers noticed a “disposable changing pad that appeared to have blood spotting on it,” and the baby “had visible foam in his mouth and cracked lips that appeared to have dried blood on them,” according to the arrest warrant.
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the baby’s cause of death to be suffocation and the manner of death to be a homicide. The evidence also includes a video recorded by a Ring surveillance camera showing Garcia with a garbage bag before calling 911.
Garcia left voicemails to police from Aug. 4 to Wednesday and admitted to lying and to report that she had “smothered” the baby, according to the arrest warrant.
“Crystal admitted she lied to the police out of fear of being arrested,” a police officer wrote, according to the arrest warrant.
The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested the couple on Wednesday.
Corrections was holding Garcia without bond on Thursday evening at the North Broward Bureau, a detention center in Pompano Beach, and Watts at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, according to inmate records.
Garcia and Watts are each facing five charges: Obstruction of a criminal investigation, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect with great bodily harm, tampering with evidence, and willfully touching, removing, or disturbing a dead body, clothing, or surrounding items without authorization.
Watt’s mother has had custody of their 2-year-old daughter since she was about 5 months old after she and the baby tested positive for THC at birth, according to the arrest warrant.
Read a part of the arrest warrant
Related afternoon report
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