EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Multiple witnesses provided a statement about the incident involving a mother and her 3-year-old son who drowned at a Northeast El Paso water park back in May.
Jessica Weaver, 35, was recently extradited and booked into the El Paso County Detention Center on Friday, Sept. 22, and is facing a charge of injury to a child.
As KTSM has previously reported, Weaver’s 3-year-old son, Anthony Leo Malave, was found unresponsive in a pool at Camp Cohen Water Park by officers on Saturday afternoon, May 13.
Court documents obtained by KTSM provide statements from seven different witnesses that explain what they saw that day.
The first witness said a lady fitting the description of Weaver was there by herself sitting outside of the pool for over an hour without the child, wearing a yellow top and flora bottom. The witness also said Weaver was on her phone, “never looking up or paying attention to anything.”
The second witness said she on one occasion saw the child without his mother. She also reported seeing the mother singing along to a song that was playing as she was laying down looking at her phone approximately seven minutes before the child was getting pulled out of the water.
The third witness said she saw Weaver encouraging her child to get in the pool by making a hand gesture to go into the pool and proceeded to walk away leaving the child by himself. She stated she saw the child start going down the pool stairs, but she did not pay attention to see if the child got all the way in the pool.
Later in the day, the same witness said she was advised that the child was found underwater. She said she saw lifeguards performing CPR on the child with dark color shorts, but she didn’t know that boy was the same boy that was with Weaver. She concluded saying she thinks it took Weaver about five minutes to run to the child and the lifeguards after they had blown the whistle for everyone to get out of the pool.
The fourth witness said he saw Weaver sitting by the pool on the outside concrete area which separated the lazy river and the jungle gym with a slide. He explained Weaver was not in the water at any point, and he did not see her with any child. He continued saying that what caught his attention was the way she was acting and how she was all “dolled up” sitting outside the pool on her phone and taking pictures the entire time he saw her. He concluded saying that when the child was pulled out of the water, Weaver was still in the same spot and she had not moved; Once Weaver did, she jumped into the water.
The fifth witness said she saw a “young child” swimming unattended and was not wearing a life vest. She said she found it odd for a child to be that young in the pool without floating devices and unattended by a parent. The witness also said the life vests are free to anyone that wants to use one.
The sixth witness said she was there with her three-year-old child mainly in the toddler area of the pool and at no time did she saw Weaver with a child or tending to a child while at the water park. She further explained she never saw the child in the pool or around Weaver at any time while she was present. The witness also described Weaver and said she saw her singing along to songs by herself.
The last witness said she contacted the El Paso Police Department and made an official police report due to the concern she had over what she saw with the lack of supervision from Weaver at the pool. The witness said she saw the child “spitting chips” in the pool and when she observed what he was doing, she looked around to see if the child’s parents were around, but she didn’t see anyone around. Later, the witness said she saw the child exiting the pool and going to Weaver. The witness said that knowing now where the mother was sitting, she was concerned because she wasn’t around or watching the child while he was in the water. Additionally, the witness said she found it weird that Weaver was at the water park alone and mainly on her phone and never with the child. The child was not wearing a life vest.
Court documents state that the water park holds a maximum capacity of 1,460 people and on the day of the incident it was estimated at the time approximately 466 people present at the water park, leaving “numerous life vests available for those in attendance.”
Additionally, 18 lifeguards were working, according to court documents.
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