Mother Charged With Murder After 5-Month-Old Dies Of Brain Injury

PALM HARBOR, FL — The mother of a 5-month-old baby who died Monday from a traumatic brain injury has been charged with first-degree murder.

Pinellas County Sheriff's detectives originally charged the child's mother with aggravated child abuse but upgraded the charges after the baby was taken off life support and died at 1:45 p.m.

On Friday, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office notified the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office about an incident involving a baby with life-threatening injuries.

Pasco County detectives said, on Thursday, 30-year-old Burgandie Marquez stopped at a Mobil gas station in Pasco County with her 5-month-old son, Mason Marquez, complaining that the child was having seizures and needed medical attention.

Paramedics responded to the gas station and airlifted the child to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. Medical staff at the hospital told detectives that the child suffered a severe brain bleed caused by a head trauma.

When they questioned the mother, Pasco detectives learned that Marquez and the child had been staying at 3582 Country Point Place in Palm Harbor. Witnesses told detectives that the child appeared in good health on Sept. 25.

When Pinellas County Sheriff's detectives interviewed Marquez on Saturday, they said she gave contradictory statements about how the child was injured. Detectives said she eventually admitted to becoming angry Wednesday while on the phone with the baby's father. She said she forcefully jerked the child up from the ground twice causing the child's head to snap backward.

Marquez said she then placed the child under her arm and ran up and down the stairs of the Palm Harbor home, allowing the child's head to bounce up and down without support. Marquez told detectives she realized she had been too rough with the child.

On Thursday morning, Marquez said the baby began to have seizures. She said she tried to console the baby but didn't seek medical attention.

Later that afternoon, Marquez drove with the baby to Pasco County to meet the child's father but stopped at the Mobil station when the baby's condition worsened.

Pinellas County detectives arrested Marquez at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. She remains in the Pinellas County Jail.