A South Florida mother charged with first-degree murder after intentionally pushing her 9-year-old special needs son into a canal earlier this year, drowning him, is facing the death penalty, prosecutors said.
Patricia Ripley, 45, from Miami-Dade was indicted by a grand jury this week over the May 21 death of her severely autistic and non-verbal son Alejandro Ripley, and prosecutors said they will pursue the death penalty, the Miami Herald reported.
Besides her first-degree murder charge, she was also charged with a host of other felonies.
Ripley was taken into custody after detectives obtained surveillance footage showing her intentionally pushing her son into a canal at about 7:30 p.m. on May 21, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. Nearby residents heard the woman screaming and found Alejandro in the water and managed to rescue him.
After Alejandro was rescued by the Samaritans, the mother took her son to a different place an hour later and pushed him for a second time into a different canal, where the boy then drowned and was later found deceased by police who responded to the woman’s missing child report, where she claiming her son was kidnapped by two men in Miami.
Police questioned Ripley hours after the boy was found dead on the morning of May 22 in a canal located a few miles from the area she said the abduction took place.
Ripley initially told police her dramatic abduction story with two men blocking her car and demanding drugs from her. After she told the men she didn’t have any illegal substances, they snatched her cellphone and pulled her son out of the vehicle, the woman said in the fake report.
The missing child report made national headlines and also activated a statewide Amber Alert for the boy.
Investigators later said they were initially suspicious about Ripley’s story of what happened and after they obtained surveillance footage from her pushing the boy into a canal and the bystanders then coming forth to pull the boy to safety, she admitted to making up the abduction story.
The indicted woman was not at Thursday’s hearing. And because she now faces capital punishment, she must be told that her lawyers must be certified to handle death-penalty cases, the Herald reported.
“We would need to have Miss Ripley here,” prosecutor Gail Levine told the court.
Her defense lawyer, Suzy Ribero-Ayala, said she has not been able to have face-to-face meetings with her client because jail visits are still suspended because of the threat of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. She has talked to her via virtual meetings.
‘Sweet and Happy Boy’
Antoinette Uribe, the boy’s therapist at My Kid Therapy Center, said, “He [Alejandro] was the world to his parents.”
Uribe told Local10 Alejandro was a “sweet and happy boy” and had been spending more time at home because of the CCP virus pandemic.
A large memorial was held the day after the news broke out on Alejandro’s death at the Friendship Circle of Miami, a nonprofit organization that offers services for children with special needs.
Ripley is married and has one other child.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
