GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A Florida judge rescheduled a hearing this week to consider whether to keep in jail indefinitely a mother who told police she deliberately drowned her 7-month-old infant in a bath tub, after her public defender said the woman was dealing with a continuing crisis.
Tierra Anne Scott-Franklin, 23, of Gainesville did not appear in court as expected Tuesday afternoon. Circuit Judge Robert K. Groeb rescheduled the detention hearing to Feb. 2 to consider the request from the State Attorney’s Office to keep her in jail until her criminal case concludes.
Scott-Franklin, who was also identified in unrelated court records as Tierra Anne Franklin-Scott, is facing a first-degree murder charge, one of the most serious offenses under Florida law. If convicted, she faces up to life in prison or execution. The case was an extremely rare incident of infanticide.
Scott-Franklin was arrested Jan. 14 after she called 911 to report that she had deliberately drowned her daughter in the bath tub of her home in Sweetwater Square apartments in East Gainesville, police said. She said she left the baby on her back in the tub and walked out of the room for five minutes.
“’I’m sorry, but I don’t regret it,” she told Gainesville police officer Kristen Hall, according to court records.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the woman’s public defender, Canaan Goldman, told the judge that Scott-Franklin remained in custody but was not available to appear in court because she was dealing with a crisis. Her jail booking photo showed her wearing a green jail-issued jumpsuit, which generally indicates an inmate is on suicide watch.
Goldman said in court that extenuating circumstances he did not specify justified a delay in the proceedings. He said her condition had been stabilized last week but did not explain further. The judge agreed to the delay. Prosecutors did not object.
Prosecutors have asked the judge not to permit Scott-Frankin to post bail while she awaits trial, arguing that she is a continuing danger to the community.
Pretrial detention hearings like the one on Tuesday are typically held early in a criminal case to determine whether a defendant should remain in jail while awaiting trial. Judges weigh several factors, including the seriousness of the charge, the defendant’s criminal history and whether the defendant poses a danger to the community or a flight risk.Hubbell Losson, a veteran criminal defense attorney not involved in the case, said the crisis could be related to mental health.“’Stabilized’ likely means that she is no longer a harm to herself or others,” Losson said.
Scott-Franklin was convicted last month in an unrelated case of punching a 67-year-old woman during an argument in August. Judge Denise Ferrero ordered her jailed for 15 days but credited her with time in the jail she had already served waiting for her case to conclude. That case included 25 pages of references to Scott-Franklin’s treatment in a local psychiatric facility, including a treatment plan and mental health assessment.
When Scott-Frankin was being arrested in that case, she slipped out of her handcuffs and briefly fled from a police cruiser – and left behind her infant daughter – before she was recaptured, court records showed.
Such criminal cases involving the murder of a child by a parent are extremely unusual in north-central Florida. The spokesman for the police department, Art Forgey, who previously worked for more than two decades with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, said it was the first such instance of infanticide that he can remember.
“We have some child abuse-charged deaths, but no infanticide deaths,” he said.
In January 2020, Victoria Leigh Sargento-Graham, 36, of Gainesville was accused of asking a friend to smother her 8-year-old son with autism after saying she had tried but failed to kill the boy herself. The friend reported her to the police. She pleaded no contest to a felony charge of solicitation of murder, and Judge William Davis ordered her in January 2021 to prison for 18 months. She had faced up to 30 years in prison.
Sargento-Graham said in a letter to the judge in 2024 that the crime happened “during a severe mental health crisis” and she deeply regretted what happened. Her probation ended earlier this month.
___This is a breaking news story. Check back in case there are further developments. Contact WUFT News by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.