Inset, left to right: Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts (Broward Main Jail). Background: The area in Florida where Garcia allegedly killed her infant son (Google Maps).
A 21-year-old mother in Florida allegedly suffocated her 3-week-old son after strapping him into a car seat, placing him in a bathtub, and blasting loud music while ignoring his cries for hours.
Crystal Garcia is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, child neglect, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, failure to report a death, and providing false information to law enforcement in connection with her infant”s death, court records show.
The child’s father, 25-year-old Anfernee Watts, is facing the same charges as Garcia as well as one count of obstructing a criminal investigation.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Hollywood Police Department and Hollywood Fire Rescue responded to a home in the 6000 block of Thomas Street at approximately 1:44 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2025, regarding a report of an unresponsive infant. First responders located the baby inside a small playpen in a private room of the residence, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 1:50 p.m.
Inside the room, investigators observed the infant lying face up with his mouth open and white foam inside, according to the affidavit. The baby’s lips were cracked with dried blood, and he was still wearing a soiled diaper. Detectives also noted a strong smell of bleach coming from the bathroom, where the window had been opened and cleaning supplies — including a mop, broom, wipes, and a container with a cleaning agent — appeared to have been recently used.
A car seat was found next to the playpen, and an Amazon Alexa device was located inside the bathroom.
Watts initially told officers he left the home around 5:30 a.m. for a job interview in Miami after he and Garcia fed the baby, changed his diaper, and placed him in the playpen wrapped in a blanket. He claimed Garcia later called him about the situation, but investigators determined the couple shared a cellphone, which remained inside the home.
In a separate interview, Garcia told officers she fed the baby and went back to sleep before waking around 10 a.m. She said she noticed the baby was not making noise and realized something was wrong after opening one of his eyes.
“You know when you see someone when they passed, like it was like that,” she told officers, per the affidavit.
Garcia admitted she did not call 911 or attempt CPR, instead waiting for Watts to return home. She said she began cleaning the room and did not tell her mother because she did not want to “stress her out.”
As the investigation progressed, detectives said they uncovered multiple inconsistencies in the couple’s accounts.
Watts claimed his job interview lasted about 10 minutes, but investigators determined no such interview took place. He also admitted to disposing of baby bottles and other items from the home and said he knocked over a jar of bleach and cleaned it up with wipes while Garcia was calling 911.
Surveillance footage from a Ring camera across the street showed Garcia outside the home roughly 30 minutes before calling 911, carrying a large white garbage bag and what appeared to be a mop or broom and placing them in a trash bin.
Family members told investigators the baby had been healthy just days earlier, including during a doctor’s visit on July 28, 2025.
Garcia later provided several different versions of events before ultimately admitting to a more detailed account, according to the affidavit.
“She placed the baby’s gray pacifier in his mouth, wrapped him in the blanket tightly, securing the pacifier in his mouth to prevent him from spitting it out and strapped him into the car seat,” the affidavit said. “She then entered the bathroom and placed the car seat with the baby in it, inside of the bathtub.”
Garcia told investigators she then played lullabies on the Alexa device, closed the bathroom door, and went back to sleep.
“Despite hearing the baby cry, she willfully ignored his distress and failed to check on him for several hours,” the affidavit states. “Upon later observing that the baby was unresponsive and appeared deceased, she failed to immediately seek medical assistance and instead participated in staging the scene to mislead law enforcement.”
Detectives said Garcia eventually admitted she was “scared of going to jail,” and that she and Watts fabricated a story to tell police, placing the baby back in the playpen to make it appear he had died in his sleep.
Garcia also allegedly called the department and left a voicemail saying she had “lied” about her son’s death, clarifying that she “smothered the baby.”
“My investigation into this incident revealed that Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts provided multiple false and inconsistent statements to law enforcement in an attempt to conceal the true circumstances surrounding the death of their 3-week-old child,” a detective wrote. “Both he and Crystal Garcia admitted to fabricating a story to present to law enforcement … in an effort to make it appear as though the baby died in his sleep.”
The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined the baby’s cause of death was suffocation and ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Both defendants are being held in the Broward Main Jail without bond. It was not immediately clear when they were scheduled to return to court.
