A woman jailed for the death of her child — whom she allegedly forced to drink bleach — could potentially face the death penalty, prosecutors say.
Joanna Zephir is accused of making her 3-year-old and 8-year-old children drink the chemical outside a church in Poinciana, Florida, in May 2022, WKMG reported. She then is said to have strangled the toddler.
According to the report, the 38-year-old mother was facing an active arrest warrant for the attempted murder and stabbing of her spouse just hours before in Orange County. In light of this, she informed a relative that she would turn herself in but wanted to spend time with her kids first.
“She took both of her children and left the family member’s residence. Several hours later, she called a family member and told her that she had killed her 3-year-old and the 8-year-old was also going to die and then she would kill herself,” Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez said at a press conference at the time.
When deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered the child unresponsive in the car, the outlet reported. All of them were transported to the hospital, where the 3-year-old was pronounced dead. The older child, along with the husband, survived their injuries. Per WKMG ClickOrlando, Lopez said that Zephir claimed the incident was the result of a “voodoo spell” placed on her by the victim in Orange County.
Earlier this year, a grand jury indicted her for first-degree murder with a weapon, making her “eligible for the death penalty,” the Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday, April 23. She was also hit with attempted murder with a weapon and attempted first-degree murder with a weapon.
Prosecutors filed the notice of intent to seek capital punishment, explaining that the “decision to seek the death penalty is based on statutory aggravators including the victim being younger than 12 years old, the victim of the capital felony being particularly vulnerable because the defendant stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim and the capital felony being committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, aggravated child abuse.”
Court records show that her trial is scheduled for July, local news reported.
