Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mommy Boozes @ Hotel Bar as Tot-Daughter Drowns in Hotel Pool

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

A 7-year-old girl drowns in a hotel pool while her mother drinks in the hotel bar.  Katlyn Pineda was found lifeless in the Marriott Melville Long Island pool last year. She remained in a coma on a ventilator and feeding tube for a year, until she died on May 1, 2023. Mom Erica Baez, 41, told investigators the girl had been alone for five minutes. The girl had actually been alone for at least half an hour while Baez ate and drank in the hotel bar. Baez then checked on the girl and went upstairs to check on her 5-month-old son, also left alone. She then went back to the bar. Prosecutors say after another 30 minutes, Baez found Katlyn in the water. Hotel staff say Baez was told that there was no lifeguard on duty and that she was required to be with her daughter.  The little girl suffered “irreversible” brain damage from lack of oxygen. After being in a long-term care facility in New Jersey for a year, she died.   Joining Nancy Grace Today James Shelnutt – Attorney – The Shelnutt Law Firm, P.C.; 27-year Atlanta Metro Area Major Case Detective and Former S.W.A.T. Officer; Twitter: @ShelnuttLawFirm Dr. Angela Arnold – Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA.; Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University; Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital; Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2023 Andrea Zaferes - Aquatic Death and Abuse investigator, Vice President of Lifeguard Systems; Twitter: @AZTeamLGS Dr. Jan Gorniak- Medical Examiner, Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner (Las Vegas, NV);  Board Certified Forensic Pathologist  Ashe Short - Senior Editor for The Daily Wire; Twitter @AsheSchow  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful seven-year-old little girl drowns in a hotel pool. Where's mommy? Drinking at the bar? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Exactly how did little Caitlin lose her life drowning in a hotel pool? Nobody was there to watch her? What the hay?

Where's mommy? Drunk in the bottle, as we say at the hotel bar. Guys, take a listen to our friends at WABC. Also new this morning, Suffolk County police are investigating after a seven-year-old girl was found unresponsive in a hotel pool. Officials say a family member found Caitlin Pineda at the Marriott Melville Long Island Hotel yesterday afternoon. The child was taken to the hospital in critical condition. She was then transferred to Cohen Children's Medical Center in Queens. And more in our cut one from CrimeOnline.com.

It was 48 degrees outside on January 13th in Melville, Long Island, and Erika Baez's daughter, Kaylin, wanted to swim. An unusual request normally, but at this particular moment, not so much. They were staying at the Melville, Long Island Marriott Hotel, where the indoor pool was perfect for swimming. The pool wasn't open and there was no lifeguard on duty, so Erika Baez asked the staff if they could open the pool so they could swim. The staff said since there was no lifeguard on duty, her daughter could not be in the pool by herself.

She would need to stay with her daughter at all times in the pool area. Baez agreed, and little Caitlin was able to hop in and swim. With us, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first to Ash Short, senior editor for the Daily Wire at dailywire.com. And you can find Ash on Twitter at Ash Show, S-C-H-O-W, her maiden name. Ash, thanks for being with us. What happened? Well, so this was January 13th, 2022. And this is a Marriott hotel, right? This was a, this is a three-star hotel. It was a nice hotel. They let her daughter into the pool and mom says, I'll watch her. Meanwhile, Erica Baez has a five-month-old son that she left alone in the hotel room. So five-month-old boy left alone in the hotel room,

seven-year-old girl left alone at the pool while mom goes to the bar, allegedly to have alcoholic beverages. After 30 minutes, Baez went to check on her daughter and then left her again and went to check on the baby. Baez then allegedly returned to the hotel bar,

had another alcoholic beverage, and left her daughter in the pool again for another 30 minutes. But this time, when Baez went to check on the little girl, she found her, quote, floating lifeless in the pool, according to the district attorney. But instead of leaping right in to get her daughter, Baez took her time, allegedly removing her shoes and socks and making sure her phone wouldn't get wet before jumping in to save her daughter. Wait, wait. Ash Short, senior editor of Daily Wire.

I knew everything, but I didn't know about the shoes and the socks and the phone. Would you just tell me? Ash, if you don't mind, just start at the beginning. Sometimes I have to hear things more than once. I want to hear every single fact because, you know, James Shelnut, high-profile lawyer joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, over 20 years on Metro, major case detective, former SWAT at shellnutlawfirm.com. No fact, Shellnut, is too small. No fact is too small. Right down to what Ash Short just told us about she went to go get some drinks, checked on the children, went, oh, you know what? I'm thirsty again.

It's only been 30 minutes but boy am I thirsty okay Shona that's an important fact would you agree oh I would 100% agree it shows that shows the middle intent of her as far as being selfish and not have any concern whatsoever for these children and what you just said lack of concern I'm not talking about a murder one, premeditated with mens rea, malice of forethought. I'm talking about felony neglect and a death occurs during that felony, which would make this a felony murder charge. So back to Ash Short joining us from the Daily Wire where she is Senior Editor. Ash, I want to hear the socks and shoes part again, but if you don't mind, I want to hear every detail one more time while I work on my flow chart.

Go ahead. Start at the beginning. All right. Why were they in a hotel anyway? Why were they there? So her and her, Erica Baez and her boyfriend were staying at the hotel. He worked nearby. And so he went to work, leaving her with the seven-year-old and the five-month-old. So like a staycation. You know what? We had a staycation once. We were in Atlanta and it was when Harry and Meghan were getting married. And, you know, they go by their first names only like Cher or Elvis. Harry and Meghan were getting

married and my children, you know, were all about royals. What are they? So we went and bunked up at a fancy hotel where they had a pool. That was the big draw. And we got up at some crazy hour of the morning to watch the entire wedding frequented by jumping in the pool. So they're at a staycation at this. And I've looked inside the hotel. It's pretty nice. It's a Marriott. I happen to like a Marriott. and I've looked inside the hotel. It's pretty nice. It's a Marriott. I happen to like a Marriott.

And I'm looking at the pool. It's bright and sparkly. It's indoors. And it's the kind of pool where many of the rooms, it's multi-tiered. I know that there are four levels. But many of the rooms have balconies that look not outside but the balconies on the inside of the hotel and it looks down on the pool and people walking around like instead of looking outside at the trees or the beach or whatever

you look you open your sliding glass doors all the rooms have a balcony and they all look down on the pool. And then overhead, it's not exposed to the elements. So you can never get rained on. They've got panels, windows, like a cathedral top roof of window panels. So you can be in the pool and look up at the sky you know like the sunroof in your car like that so it's a pretty nice setup uh not as nice when i imagine a little girl floating around in it lifeless but that said start at the beginning ash and everyone jump in when you have a question for ash okay go ahead dear so this all started about 3 30 p.m january 13 2022 happy hour okay right when bias allegedly asked the hotel staff to open this indoor pool so caitlin could swim but the workers warned her

that there was no lifeguard on duty and she'd have to stay with her daughter. Now, this is something that also kind of confuses me, Nancy, as you said, the setup of this pool, the way the balconies are, that nobody from the hotel or anyone standing there noticed that this girl was alone, that her mother had left her for so long. I mean,

to me, that's also seemed, I mean, January 13th, probably a slow time, but it's also, nobody saw this. But anyway, Baez allegedly left Caitlin to go to the bar, having that drink, and she left her daughter alone in the pool for 30 minutes, according to prosecutors. Baez, after this time, then checked on her daughter, but then left her alone again and went back to the hotel room to check on her five-month-old son, who she had also left alone to go drinking at the bar. So after checking on the daughter, after checking on the son, Baez decides, as Nancy said, that she's thirsty again, goes to the hotel bar to have a second cocktail, and she leaves her daughter alone in the pool for another 30 minutes. But this time, when Baez went to check on Caitlin, she found her floating lifeless in the pool, according to the district attorney. But instead of jumping right in to save

her daughter, who's just floating there upside down, not moving, Baez allegedly removes her shoes, her socks, makes sure her phone won't get wet, and then gets Caitlin out of the pool. Now, when I was a little kid, I almost drowned in a pool. My dad jumped in fully clothed with his watch, ruining his watch to save me without even thinking. So the fact that she's there taking off her shoes, taking off her socks, you know, doesn't want to get those things wet before taking her lifeless daughter out of the pool. Now after this, first responders arrived and Bynes allegedly lied to them saying she'd only left Caitlin for five minutes. By the time the first responders got there, Caitlin was in cardiac arrest. She had no pulse.

EMTs were able to revive her, but she was left with irreversible brain damage due to lack of oxygen. And she had to be placed on a ventilator and feeding tube for a year after this incident. And she died on May 1st of this year. crime stories with nancy grace asked short i've got so many questions uh but my first question is have you ever considered being a lawyer? Briefly. Wow. You can really lay out the facts. Because you know what? I think, and I don't know if Shelnut agrees or not, when I would argue cases to the Georgia Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals,

we actually had at the podium a red light, a yellow light, and a green light. You know, only the person arguing to the court could see them there's right on your podium and you'd start and it'd be green and then a yellow would come up after X number of minutes and then red and when it hit red a bailiff would remove you if you would not sit down very strict and I firmly believed as I did when I wrote briefs or argued to a pedigree of 12, that you get them in the facts. The facts run the case. Of course, the law is important too, but the facts rule the case. And the way you just recited those facts,

you said it all but i want to follow up on one thing you said that you almost drowned in a pool i almost drowned in a pool and then later in a lake but in the pool i was playing a game it was a game you play when you jump rope and it was a donald duck it's a one legged a one legged no you start uh yeah one legged duck and you jump on one foot. Then you say he's a two legged duck and you jump on both feet. And then you say a three legged duck and you put one hand down between each jump and then four legged by the time, you know, if you can jump rope, putting both hands down, you're pretty good. Anyway, I decided for some reason to do it on the steps of a pool. And right in the middle of, Donald Duck was the

one-legged, I jumped off unwittingly into a deeper part, wasn't ready for it, and swallowed in a lot of water and went down. And I still remember seeing my mother leap up out of her chair and jump in, close her hair. That's when people would have this beautiful bouffant hairdo. She had her hair done, her clothes, her shoes, her everything, jumped right in that pool and dragged me out. That's the natural response of a parent. Yeah, that's what you do when you're more concerned about other people than yourself. Hey, I appreciate that unrequested, that unsolicited psychiatric analysis you just

gave, Shelnut. But let's go to Dr. Angela Arnold, who are now a psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Dr. Angie, I remember the twins were having swim classes and I had run over to HLN and taped something. It was during the day so it had to be a surprise tape because the program was at night and I raced back to the pool and my husband was there watching the instructor right as I walked up to the pool. Don't think I would leave them alone with a swim instructor. No. Right as I walked up, I heard Lucy scream, Mommy! Well, I had on everything and all that hair and makeup and fake everything.

Jumped right in the pool and swam out to her. Of course, the swim instructor's like, what am I, chopped liver? I'm standing right here. Anyway, there's just something that takes over. But not with this mom. And Nancy, there's something else that I want to point out about this. This mother has a five-month-old baby. When people are that early in the postpartum.

Oh, no. Are you going with postpartum depression? No, I'm not. Wait until you hear what I have to say. Oh, Lord. Go ahead. Something kicks in and mothers become very, their OCD, their obsessive compulsive disorder kicks in such that they can hear the baby cry more than the father can so that they can pay attention to the baby. What was this turned off inside of this woman? We would think that with a woman who is five months postpartum, she would have more care and concern for her children, that she would be hyper alert to the care and concern of her children, more so than mothers who are not

postpartum, okay? So that wasn't even turned on inside of her. Like, what is wrong with this woman, right? She's a complete and utter psychopath. There's no woman on the face of this earth that would not jump in, like you said. And who leaves their baby at a pool unattended? You know, that brings to mind the five-month-old. Yes.

Who is, wait, is it five months or five weeks? Five months, correct, the boy? Five months. Okay, thanks, Ash. There is a universal law that when you turn your back on a child, something's going to happen. We were in our apartment in New York, and I would bathe each twin separately, okay? So they couldn't wiggle away. Now, let's see, how did this happen? The first one was John David. I had bathed him, laid him on the bed

to put lotion and all that on him, and I turned around. I went two steps to get another towel. He fell off the bed and hit his head. Of course, it was right before I was supposed to leave to go to work. So instead of going to work, I was out in the street screaming for a cab to get to a pediatrician, okay, one that would still be open. Did I learn my lesson? No. Two weeks later, I had Lucy. I laid her on the bed to put lotion on her. I turned around and gave her the towel. She fell off and hit her head, and there I was in the street again. I basically had her in one arm and pushed some guy out of the way so I could get in his taxi, and he said something. I said, my daughter hit her head. I forgot to leave out the part that I

turned around and let her fall off the bed. My is you turn your back it's gonna happen it's like Murphy's Law it will happen why is that you know I've got a specialist joining us in addition to the guests you've heard as short you've heard James Shelnut you've heard dr. Angie Arnold. Also with me is renowned medical examiner Dr. Jan Gorniak with Clark County Office of Medical Examiner. That's Vegas. And Andrea Zafaris niche aquatic death and abuse investigator vice president of lifeguard systems on twitter you can find her at az team lgs az andrea zafaris team lgs lifeguard systems andrea aquatic death and abuse investigator. Oh, I can't wait to hear what you've got to say about this. Well, first of all, think about how many hundreds of people have drowned trying to save strangers in the water.

I mean, people who are completely non-swimmers will jump into water to try and save a state. Six years ago, five people drowned trying to save a girl in Missouri. So the fact that she didn't jump in is not reasonable. It is highly unusual. Police officers are being sanctioned because they don't jump in after people who could hurt them. So her behavior is not reasonable. The other question I have is I don't see any kiddie pool in the photographs there. So that means she left her in a pool.

Do we know where she was found in the pool? What part? The shallow end? The deep end? Good question. Do we know where she was found in the pool? What part? The shallow end? The deep end? Good question. Do we, Ash? No. Although she could have floated.

She could have been in the shallow end and floated to the deep end. Or, I mean, she's a child, a seven-year-old little girl. She could have seen other people jump into the deep end earlier and thought, hey, I'll do that too. Oh, absolutely. I don't know where she was exactly in this pool but it's not a big pool because I'm concerned if a mom says she can't swim if the little girl is in the shallow end then there's absolutely no excuse why she didn't just jump in but I do know that there is a deep end right I'm pretty sure there's a deep end because I'm looking at it let me see if I can find the foot indicators, the number of feet. But I do see

they have a lifesaver, like a float right beside the pool. So I have reason to believe it. There's not a diving board, of course, but I do have reason to believe that there is a deep end. Doesn't matter because, I mean, how many inches does it take to drown, Andrea? Well, it only takes a few inches, and children have been drowned purposely by just pouring water down their airway, so you don't even have to be in water to drown. You know, one of the things we would do is measure her airway height and see, you know, where was she? Because once somebody starts to drown, they go vertical and they're splashing when when they're

non-swimmers and it's just it's a very violent absolutely petrifying death and we've interviewed people who have accidentally drowned and been saved and the people who've been tortured with drowning and you know we've interviewed people who said you know they've been strangled more times than they can count but the drowning abuse is far more horrifying so drowning is not a gentle way to go that That is for sure. And Jackie points out that a lot of children that don't know how to swim, kind of like ice skating or roller skating, when you don't know really how to do it,

you hold onto the edge and go around with your hands. So we think maybe she had been doing that. She had 30 minutes each time. Is that right, Ash Short? The mom went for a drink for the first 30 minutes each time is that right as short the mom went for a drink for the first 30 minutes checked on the baby checked on her and went back to the back to the bar yeah for about 30 minutes each time plus the time she was alone because she went back to the room to check the little boy to dr. Jan

Gorniak joining us medical examiner out of Vegas dr Dr. Gorniak, the little girl, Caitlin, had irreversible brain damage. How do you get that from drowning? I mean, she was alive when they first got there, but brain dead, whatever that means. Well, there's two different deaths. There's brain death that we, you know, when people are brain dead, and that's also consistent with what we say cardiac death or somatic death where your body is, you know, completely dead. So brain death is, there's no irreversible. So when you're brain dead, that is really considered dead dead. That's how we say it it's hard um but she just sounded like she had lack of oxygen to her brain so she wasn't brain dead but it wasn't functioning properly obviously she couldn't breathe on her own because she was on a vent she couldn't eat so most people might say she was in a vegetative state um and so that's what it sounds like she wasn't dead because she wasn't brain dead because she still had some brain functions, but not enough to breathe on her own or to eat or to care for herself.

Back to the investigation, though. So in addition to being a forensic pathologist, I'm also a registered death investigator. So I can't do my job without the death investigation. So I have so many questions before I even get to the autopsy. One, was she drinking before she left to her kid or put, you know, Caitlin in the pool? That's one question. Two, I stayed at many Marriott's and why doesn't the key open up the pool? Why did she have to ask somebody to open up the pool? That was another question. Three, why did the hotel person make sure that she knew that she had to stay with the child? Is that a policy of the hotel? Or was there something about mom and daughter at that time that she felt obligated to say, hey, you need to stay with her. So she had a concern or he had a concern.

I'm not sure who the hotel attendant was. Did they go back and check? And then also obviously as a mom, myself and a grandmother, you know, yes, I would jump in, forget my shoes, socks, my hair, whatever. But remember she was drinking. So her, I don't know what her alcohol level was so maybe possibly that was gone you know that that instinct to jump it and save your child was diminished because of the alcohol she had on had on board I'm wondering if they even took the mom's blood alcohol if they did a breathalyzer

at that time but I am looking at short Senior Editor Daily Wire at this photo, and I do see that there is one of those wrought iron type gates leading into the pool area, surrounded by an opaque, solid wall all the way around the pool where they have plants planted but you can go through that wrought iron which is just like you can see through the wrought iron and I'm looking right at it I don't see that it's done with a keypad it may just be a very simple child lock so it's curious that she went to ask about going into the pool and getting into the pool. Nancy, how did she get back in when she went to go check on the child? Yeah, so I don't think that's a very good point, Dr. Gorniak.

I don't think she needed assistance in getting the child in there. So I'm curious. I wonder if the staff didn't come up and say, hey, you can't be in there. We don't have a lifeguard unless you're going to stay with her. I wonder if that's the way it all went down to Andrea's fairness. Jump in, Andrea. Did any of Dr. Gorniak's questions as the death investigator ring a bell to you? Oh, absolutely. And I mean, we would want to track all her movements. I wanted to know what her behavior was if she'd done this before, Because how does this child live to that age if this is her normal behavior?

So that's another thing. I wanted to look at her whole history. What's her history with swimming with this child? And did this child have swimming lessons? And was there anything that made her feel comfortable that this child would have survived? We're talking about Erica Baez, a mom of two, whose daughter drowns in a hotel pool while mommy is drinking at the bar not once but twice. One of you asked earlier, what mom in her right mind would leave the child in a pool to go drink? Well, take a listen to our friends at WFRD.

Goma mother has been convicted in the death of her seven-month-old son according to court records 24 year old cheyenne wyrick's pleaded no contest to the drowning of her baby in a bathtub she originally pleaded not guilty a criminal complaint says wyrick's admitted she was watching youtube while her kids were bathing this was for several minutes her other son was the one who found the baby drowning her sentencing is set for may the 18th that mom wasn't even drinking she was just scrolling through youtube and let the baby drown so i'd like to hear you your response to that, Dr. Angie Arnold. Nancy, there are people who are stupid, okay? I really mean that.

And if we don't want to go down the postpartum depression thing, Nancy, there are people who look. I've heard of cases where somebody has put a child in the jacuzzi and left them alone. Excuse me, I mean a newborn. And they wonder why the newborn dies the fact of the matter is you never leave a baby unattended not for one second you don't you don't run in the other room to get something because they can slip down in that tub and drown and has and has been brought up the baby babies can even drown if they've been, if they've been underwater like that in the nighttime after they've had all of that, that water in their lungs. We should talk about

that. But the fact of the matter is you never leave a baby unattended. And I think that there's some people that just don't know that, Nancy. I really do. Well, you know what? James Shelnut, it's really interesting that Dr. Angie phrased it that way because ignorance of the law is no excuse. And here's a perfect example. James Shelnut, longtime Metro Major case detective, now lawyer. Here's a perfect example.

You may bring a semi-truck full of turnips across the state lines and argue, I thought it was turnips. Oops, it turned out to be cocaine. The turnip defense is not going to work. And if you don't know that it is negligent to leave a child in a jacuzzi or alone in a pool by themselves for at least one hour correct me if I'm wrong ass short but 30 minutes the first time drinking at the bar then leaves again to go check her other baby she left alone in the hotel room the five-month-old and then back to the bar you add that all together that's at least one hour plus she had the wherewithal to

lie which is indicia of guilt guilty conscience lying to police i don't care if she knew it was neglect or not nancy part of that is that they're not they're not going to have to prove that she knew that most of the time when these statutes are written they say knew or should have known whether she knew it or not is going to be irrelevant in her prosecution. She should have known that leaving a baby in a room was reckless. She should have known that leaving a seven-year-old daughter in a pool while she drank was reckless and that that could easily result in her death. And we haven't even mentioned the fact that she didn't know if there were sexual predators staying at this hotel.

Who would leave a seven-year-old little girl alone on the playground, much less in the water, unaccompanied with no whiteboard? She should have known that that could have resulted in her death. Guys, take a listen to our cut three from our friends at Crime Online. Erica Baez is drinking and eating at the hotel bar in the middle of the afternoon while her five-month-old baby is back in their hotel room all alone and her seven-year-old daughter is all alone in the swimming pool trying to keep an eye on the children she drinks and eats for 30 minutes and then she makes her rounds to make sure the children are okay 30

minutes earlier Caitlin was swimming in the pool by herself but now as Erica Baez approaches the indoor pool she doesn't see any splashing or swimming. She finds her daughter floating lifeless in the pool. Rather than jump in and try to save her immediately, this 41-year-old mother takes the time to take off her shoes and socks and puts her phone off to the side. Then, she pulls her daughter out of the pool. And more in our Cut 5. Caitlin Pineda, the 7-year-old daughter of Erica Baez, pulled from an indoor swimming pool on a cold January day without a pulse and in cardiac arrest, is alive when she arrives at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Cohen's Children's Hospital.

However, while the EMTs were able to revive her and get a pulse on the way to the hospital, the brain damage caused by the oxygen deprivation is irreversible. Caitlin would now be kept alive by a ventilator and a feeding tube. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Back to Dr. Jean Gorniak, renowned medical examiner, joining us out of Las Vegas. What was this child's life like in that physical condition,

living off of a feeding tube? Oh, I can only imagine. Obviously, it wasn't a productive life. It wasn't a life of a second grader or third grader. She was confined to a bed, a hospital bed, and being taken care of around the clock because of being on a ventilator and a feeding tube. So she didn't have a quality life that a seven-year-old should have had. Being able to play with her younger sibling, to go to school, to have friends, you know, take ballet lessons, whatever her desires were, she was confined to a hospital bed being taken care of.

Guys, we're talking about a beautiful seven-year-old little girl, Caitlin, who dies alone in a hotel swimming pool. When EMTs arrive, she has no pulse. They managed to revive her and get her to the hospital in the hopes she could be saved. And she lived in the condition Dr. Jean Gorniak has described until she died. Andrea Zafaris is joining us, aquatic death and abuse investigator.

Weigh in, Andrea. What's really scary is, I don't know, the Center for Diseases and Control, that drowning is the number one cause of death for ages one to four. And when you look at ages five to nine, unintentional injury is number one, and drowning is second in that category. So unfortunately, it's really common. But it's not common to be left alone in a pool for that long. And one minute she's having a good time, she's enjoying herself, and then somehow she's over

her airway or she thinks she's over her airway. And now she's struggling to breathe. And the greatest urge that we all have is to breathe and is absolutely petrifying. She is going to be splashing with her arms, trying to push down. She's going to be trying to get her airway up. And Dr. Frank Pia did a study years ago in New York that the average child takes about 20 seconds of struggling before sinking below that surface. So the fact that she was still on the surface, reportedly, meant that she had a chance of being saved because she couldn't have been under for that long. And I really want to know, did mom call 911? Did she start CPR? What exactly happened when she got this child out is

there video of this yeah sure what do we know i imagine that somewhere somehow there is surveillance video i would hope so and maybe that will come out at trial so erica baez just like the other woman we talked about she's uh pleaded not guilty now maybe she changes that later, but right now she's pleaded not guilty. So this may go to trial. And I want to caution that she has, you know, been arrested and she's being held without bail. She hasn't been convicted yet. And the information that we have now is all coming from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, right? Now, we imagine that the police talk to people at the hotel, talk to people at the hotel bar, talk to bias, you know, talk to anyone that was in the area and viewed surveillance

video to get this information, right? To get this 30-minute time limit, to get, you know, the drinks you ordered, to get all of this information. But we also have to remember that there will be a defense and we don't know what that's going to be. It could, and, you know, it seems hard to believe, but it could change perceptions of what happened or who Erica Baez is. You know, so I do want to caution against that. based on what the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office has put out, that they have viewed surveillance footage, that they have viewed any kind of footage that they have anywhere in the hotel and spoken to hotel workers, bar staff, anyone else. So we would have to assume that.

You know, curious to James Shelnut, joining us from the Shelnut Law Firm. You can find him at ShelnutLawFirm.com. Why do you believe surveillance video and witnesses from the bar are critical in making this case? Well, because although it's not prudent to leave a child alone for any amount of time, as you just discussed from your own personal experience, just turn your back for two seconds, something could happen. Well, yeah, I didn't leave them alone. I turned around. Right. Be clear on that.

The longer that it goes on, though, the more culpable this lady becomes. So, you know, opinions may vary at two minutes. They may vary at five. But four out of five dentists are going to agree that a half hour leaving a seven-year-old alone in a pool is criminally culpable. And that's important. The timeline in this case, in every case, is important. And in this case, it goes to show the level of conscious disregard that this lady had for the life of her daughter and the baby that they had there. And let's overlay that with the warning

that she was given by the hotel staff. Okay, you can go in the pool, but you've got to stay with her. You cannot leave her alone. That was the directive given to Erica Baez before she let the little girl, Caitlin, get into the pool. I'm telling you, the most damning, the most damning evidence is going to be how many drinks she ordered, how long she was really at the bar. Hotel surveillance is well known for having surveillance in elevators, in hallways. We're going to be able to track her leaving the pool, going upstairs to see the five-month-old who was also alone in a hotel room, left alone often if at all she went back to the pool did she really even go back to check on her during those 30 minute visits to the bar we're

going to find out how many drinks she ordered what drinks she ordered for all I know she went there and had a soda water it's possible all that will be uncovered at trial guys speaking of trial take a listen to our cut six our friends at news 12. a bronx mom is expected to face a judge after she was slammed with manslaughter charges following the death of her seven-year-old daughter according to suffolk county police the girl was found unresponsive in a hotel pool on long island last year she remained in a coma and sadly passed away on may 1st police say her mom 41 year old erica baez left her daughter unattended at the pool on the day of the incident she was arrested in manhattan yesterday now according to the reports we have gotten they make it very clear that she was having another drink which she nursed in the bar for half an hour.

Now, this is according to the prosecutor. What do we know about the exact charges, Ash Short? She was charged with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. So one count for the five-month-old, one counts for the seven-year-old. One question that I have is her daughter was on this life support for a year. So did the investigation into this occur right when her daughter drowned or did it only begin after her daughter died? She was only charged after her daughter died, yet she could have been charged with the endangerment right at the time,

so back in 2022. So my question is why that didn't happen, or if the district attorney's office was kind of waiting for the daughter to die before charging her with everything rather than bringing a manslaughter charge afterward. I'm very surprised they're not charging her with felony murder, which is a much more significant charge because a death occurred in the commission of a felony. That is child neglect, felony child neglect. I just say I'm really applauding the Sussex County for making these charges because we are seeing a dangerous trend around the country where parents are not being charged when these drownings are happening. In Ulster County, which is just two hours north of this, we had a case where a mother left her children in the Hudson River so she could do drugs with a drug dealer.

The daughter drowned and no charges were filed. And that is something we're seeing happening more and more. So I think this is an important case. And I really applaud the Suffolk County for charging this case. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friends. This is an iHeart Podcast.