Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a mother who allegedly forced her 3-year-old to drink bleach and blamed it on a “voodoo spell.”

Prosecutors say a woman sentenced to prison for the death of a baby – whom she allegedly forced to drink bleach – could face the death penalty.

Joanna Zephir is accused forcing his 3-year-old and 8-year-old children to drink a chemical substance outside a church in Poinciana, Florida, in May 2022, WKMG reported. She is then said to have strangled the baby.

According to the report, the 38-year-old mother was facing an lively arrest warrant for the attempted murder and stabbing of her spouse just hours earlier. Therefore, she informed the relative that she would turn herself in to the police, but first she wanted to spend time with her children.

“She took both children and left the family member’s residence. A few hours later she called a family member and told her that she had killed her 3-year-old and that her 8-year-old was going to die too and then she was going to kill herself,” Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez said at a news conference. the conference at the moment.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found an unconscious child in the automobile, the outlet reported. They were all taken to hospital, where the 3-year-old was pronounced dead. The older child and her husband survived their injuries. According to WKMG ClickOrlando, Lopez said Zephir claimed the incident was the results of a “voodoo spell.”

Earlier this yr, a grand jury indicted her on one count of first-degree murder with a gun, making her “eligible for the death penalty,” according to the Ninth Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday, April 23. She was also charged with attempted armed murder and attempted first-degree murder with a weapon.

Prosecutors filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty, explaining that “the decision to seek the death penalty was based on statutory aggravating aspects, including the victim’s age of lower than 12 years, with the victim of a capital crime being particularly vulnerable because the defendant was in the exercise of family or guardianship authority over the victim and a crime punishable by death when the defendant was involved in committing or attempting to commit aggravated child abuse.”

Court records show her trial is scheduled for July, local news reports.