A Florida mother is facing the death penalty after she confessed to pushing her son, who was autistic and nonverbal, into a Miami canal and then leaving him there to drown.
A Miami-Dade grand jury this week indicted Patricia Ripley on first-degree murder charges and several other felonies for the death of 9-year-old Alejandro Ripley, the Miami Herald reported. Prosecutors announced the indictment during a hearing on Thursday as well as their intentions to pursue execution as a possible punishment.
Ripley initially told authorities a light blue car had run her off the road, near a Home Depot the night of May 21. She claimed that one man got out of the vehicle, demanded drugs at knifepoint, then took the boy, her cellphone and a tablet.