JAZLYN GONZALEZ - 11 months (9/2010)/ Charged: Mother; Rosario Gonzalez - Houston TX

Police and Child Protective Services are investigating Friday's drowning of a child in northeast Harris County.The girl, believed to be about 11 months old, was found about 12:45 p.m. in a bathtub at a home in the 3900 block of James Landing, authorities said.The child, whose identity hasn’t been released, was taken to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead about an hour later, authorities said.Further details about the case were not immediately available, CPS officials said.

Humble mother charged in infant's drowning death

By STEFANIE THOMAS sthomas@hcnonline.com
Updated May 19, 2011

HUMBLE - The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the Sept. 24 drowning death of an 11-month-old girl at a residence in unincorporated Humble a homicide.

According to Harris County court records, the mother of little Jazlyn Gonzalez, 24-year-old Rosario Gonzalez, was taken into custody and charged with criminally negligent homicide May 18.

A Harris County Sheriff's investigator wrote in a probable cause statement that he was called to investigate the infant's drowning death at her home in the 3900 block of James Landing, near Greens Road and Wilson, and found the child's body lying just inside the front door. Attempts to revive Jazlyn were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital around 2 p.m.

"[Gonzalez] stated that at approximately 12:10 p.m., she placed her 11-month-old daughter into the bath tub so that she could bathe and play with her other two children," the deputy wrote. "She stated that as all three children were in the bathtub, she was present in the bathroom."

The document goes on to say that the mother told investigators she stayed in the bathroom with her youngest child after the older children, 2 and 4 years old, were finished bathing. When the phone rang, the mother told authorities she pulled the makeshift bath plug - a pair of boy's underwear - and left the room to answer the call. Jazlyn was reportedly left in two inches of water that was in the process of draining from the tub.

"She stated that her husband was on the phone and asked her to look up a number on the computer for him. She stated that she did so, and when she came back into the bathroom, she found the complainant lying in the bathtub unconscious, unresponsive, and not breathing," the deputy wrote in his statement. "The defendant stated that there was no water in the bathtub when she returned."

Hospital records, however, "indicated copious fluid exuding from [the infant's] airways." The medical examiner's office also found fluid in the child's airways during autopsy and ruled the drowning a homicide.

Gonzalez has since been released from the Harris County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

No attorney of record was listed for Gonzalez.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/humble/news/humble-mother-charged-in-infant-s-drowning-death/article_49ffb2ac-8234-11e0-a90b-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=jqm