MIAMI (Court TV) — A woman who admitted to drowning her young daughter in a bathtub during an at-home “baptism” will not serve time in jail after she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Precious Bland (Miami-Dade Police Department)
Precious Leslie Bland, 43, waived her right to a jury and instead placed her fate in the hands of a judge after pleading not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and child abuse. On Tuesday, Judge Miguel De La O acquitted Bland, finding her legally insane.
“God is good. This doesn’t bring back my daughter,” Bland said to WFOR, moments after hearing the judge’s verdict. “I’m thankful. I love my children.”
On Aug. 23, 2021, officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department were called to Bland’s home for a report that multiple people had been stabbed. When they arrived, Bland’s husband was standing outside of the family’s home with a stab wound to his head and neck. He told officers that his wife “was upset, stating that Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all,” according to a police report reviewed by Court TV.
Bland’s husband told investigators that his wife held the couple’s 15-month-old daughter underwater in a bathtub until she was unresponsive. When he tried to intervene, Bland allegedly told one of the couple’s children to get a knife. When the child complied, prosecutors said Bland took the knife and stabbed her husband multiple times. The child who retrieved the knife also suffered a stab wound to their arm.
“It’s odd behavior, Judge, it is, but it’s not legal insanity,” Prosecutor Elizabeth Utset argued during the short bench trial, WFOR said. “The voices and the COVID psychosis are a fabrication and an embellished story.”
Bland’s defense presented expert testimony arguing the defendant had been in a COVID-related psychosis at the time she killed her daughter, the Miami Herald reported.
Officers said the 15-month-old was found face down, unresponsive in a bathtub filled with bloody water. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by drowning.
After the verdict, Bland was allowed to leave the courthouse. She had been free on a $10,000 bond and under house arrest after De La O granted her request to leave jail under strict conditions. Bland’s attorney, Larry Handfield, told the Miami Herald that his client was a decorated Navy officer who had served in Iraq and worked on a security detail for President George W. Bush. “I knew that she was not responsible for that tragic incident,” he said. “The actions that she took [were] the result of a medical crisis brought on by COVID.”
While Bland was released, she is scheduled to return to court on June 26 for a report, according to online court records.
