If found guilty, a Florida mother could get the death penalty for stabbing her husband and then making her two kids drink bleach, which killed one of them.
The Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday that they will seek the death sentence for Joanne Zephir for killing her 3-year-old child.
Osceola County officers arrested Zephir on May 8, 2022, over the Mother’s Day weekend. They said she had stabbed her husband and then made her three and eight-year-old children drink bleach before strangling her toddler to death, according to officials. The husband and the 8-year-old child were taken to a nearby hospital and were both able to live.
The state attorney’s office said Zephir could face the death sentence after an Osceola County grand jury charged her with first-degree murder with a weapon in February, which is a capital felony. She also faced charges of trying to kill someone with a weapon in the first degree and trying to kill someone with a weapon in the criminal degree.
Prosecutors said they were going to ask for the death penalty because the victim was younger than 12 years old, Zephir had parental or custodial authority over the victim, and the felony was committed while she was committing or trying to commit aggravated child abuse.