TAMPA, Fla. (Court TV) — A woman accused of killing her newborn and disposing of it in a trash can in her dorm must remain in Hillsborough County, even though she has no ties to the area or her former school, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Brianna Moore appears at a bond hearing on July 15, 2026. (Court TV)
Brianna Moore, 21, is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect and unlawfully moving a dead body after the child was found in her dorm room’s trash can in 2024.
At the time of the child’s death, Moore was a student at the University of Tampa; she no longer attends the school. At a hearing on Wednesday, Moore’s attorney, Idalis Vento, asked Judge Lawrence Lefler to lower her client’s bond and also allow her to leave Hillsborough County. In a pretrial motion, Moore’s defense sought permission to return to her home state of Mississippi to live with her grandmother.
When Moore was initially arrested in October 2024, a different judge set the bond for the charge of aggravated manslaughter at $250,000; if Moore was released, the orders required her to remain in Hillsborough County under GPS monitoring. Vento argued on Wednesday that Moore has no ties to Hillsborough County and, with no prior arrests, there was little risk in allowing her to go and live with her family.
Assistant State Attorney Jessica Couvertier opposed the change, noting that there had been “no actual change in circumstances” that would merit consideration of the issue. Couvertier said she considers the defendant to be a flight risk, and pointed out that the state of Florida had to spend “thousands” in extradition costs to retrieve her from Mississippi after charges were filed. “She was traveling with friends while this case was under investigation,” she added.
Vento conceded that her client was arrested at her family’s home in Mississippi, but said that was only because her client had no idea that charges had been filed against her.
Lefler refused to lower the bond amount and denied the defense’s request to allow Moore to leave the area. However, he dismissed the motion without prejudice and offered to “potentially address that, if she is released.”
Moore is due to return to the same courtroom on Thursday for a motions hearing. Her team is asking Lefler to suppress any mention of a video allegedly showing Moore “clearly pregnant” and walking on campus. The defense is also asking for additional evidence it says prosecutors have withheld: the full cellphone extraction from Moore’s phone that her attorneys say they have not yet received — more than a year after her arrest.
