MIAMI (Court TV) — New filings in the case against a mom accused of intentionally drowning her child with autism reveal that the defendant told her own family the same alleged lie she told police.
Patricia Ripley booking photo. (Miami Dade Jail)
Patricia Ripley, 51, is charged with the murder of her 9-year-old son, identified in court documents as “A.R.” She has pleaded not guilty, and court filings indicate that the defendant plans to argue she was sleep-deprived when she allegedly confessed to the murder.
Patricia Ripley’s older son, Aldo Ripley Jr., sat for a deposition with attorneys in his mother’s case and offered insight into the family’s home before the alleged murder. Aldo Ripley Jr. described the household as peaceful and loving. “My mother never yelled at me or my brother, never hit me or my brother,” he said at the deposition. “It was purely love and it was a household full of that.”
Aldo Ripley Jr. acknowledged sleep issues in the house, saying that his younger brother would wake up approximately five times each night and would regularly struggle to fall asleep.
On May 21, 2020, Aldo Ripley Jr. was at home attending school online while his father was in a different room of the house working remotely. Patricia Ripley left with A.R. to run errands. Aldo Ripley Jr. recalled his father getting a phone call; his mother was on the other end, “screaming and like, telling him that something happened to A.R., that someone took him.”
Aldo Ripley Jr. and his father sped to the Home Depot, where Patricia Ripley had reported A.R. had disappeared. Patricia Ripley told her family and the police that two men had chased her, crashed her car and then demanded drugs before stealing her phone and tablet. The stranger then allegedly grabbed A.R. and fled in an unknown direction.
Investigators say Patricia Ripley’s story began to unravel after witnesses reported seeing her try to drown the 9-year-old. Those witnesses intervened and saved the child, but prosecutors say that Patricia Ripley then drove to a second location where she succeeded in drowning A.R.
“I don’t know anything,” Aldo Ripley Jr. told attorneys at his deposition; he said he had never seen his mother’s alleged confession. “I don’t want to know. I don’t know why that happened. I don’t know what’s real.”
Patricia Ripley is due back in court on Thursday for a motions hearing.
If she’s convicted, the defendant faces a potential death sentence. Aldo Ripley Jr. told attorneys that he still loves his mother and does not agree with the state’s decision to seek the death penalty.
