Florida AG wants to impeach judge who found a mother not guilty due to insanity

Crime admin June 26, 2026 0 Comments

Florida AG wants to impeach judge who found a mother not guilty due to insanity

Florida’s attorney general said he is seeking to impeach a Miami judge after he found a mother who drowned her 1-year-old daughter in a bathtub not guilty by reason of insanity due to COVID-19-related psychosis.

James Uthmeier, in a Thursday post on X, referenced Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel de la O’s ruling, saying his office “will be drafting articles of impeachment, and we look forward to working with all legislators who will support.”

This week, the judge found that Precious Bland, 43, did not understand the nature of her actions when she killed her daughter. De la O also said he did not see a reason to commit Bland to a mental institution.

READ MORE: Mom: COVID made me drown 1-year-old daughter in tub. Judge says she’s not guilty

Bland waived her right to a jury trial, instead opting to have the judge determine whether she should be convicted of aggravated manslaughter and attempted murder. The defense argued that Bland had a psychotic episode due to a COVID infection.

“There is zero credible explanation other than her psychotic state,” de la O said as he ruled.

In a hearing on Friday, the judge said he was appointing another doctor to evaluate Bland. De la O also said he wants several psychiatrists — and Bland’s husband — to testify during a hearing on July 6 about her release. In Florida, a person found not guilty by reason of insanity may be placed on conditional release, which requires a treatment plan and periodic monitoring.

Reacting to the attorney general’s announcement, attorney Larry Handfield, who is representing Bland, told reporters the judge was following the law, and anyone reacting to the verdict without following the trial was jumping to conclusions.

“Once you know the facts, it was clear that conduct was not the person, the life she lived for 43 years,” Handfield said. The killing, the attorney said, stood in stark contrast to his client, who was a decorated Navy officer who served in Iraq and was part of a security detail for then-President George W. Bush.

The killing occurred on Aug. 23, 2021, at the home where Bland, her husband, Evan Bland, and their six children lived on the 3000 block of Northwest 99th Street. There, deputies discovered that Bland had drowned her daughter Emii in a bathtub, according to an arrest report.

Emii was found face down inside the bathtub, which was filled with bloody water, investigators say.

Bland’s husband tried to stop her, and a struggle ensued. Precious Bland asked their teenage daughter to get a knife, and the daughter told deputies that she “didn’t know why [Bland] wanted a knife, but she complied.” With that knife, Bland stabbed her husband in the head and neck — and, afterward, sliced her teenage daughter in the forearm as the teen tried to get Emii from Bland, the report says.

When deputies arrived, Evan Bland told them his wife “was upset, stating that Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all,” according to the report. Evan Bland said his wife insisted that everyone in the home needed to be baptized in the bathtub.

Outside the courtroom on Friday, Bland told reporters that she loves her children and has had a difficult time accepting what unfolded on the day she drowned her daughter. She said she has been receiving therapy and mental-health treatment.

“I’m a loving mother, wife, friend, sister, daughter, even to strangers,” Bland said. “I would not wish this on my enemies … something so tragic.”

Handfield acknowledged that he was skeptical about COVID-related psychosis until he did research — and realized how severe the impact of an infection could be.

“What happened to Precious Bland can happen to anyone …,” Handfield said. “It’s very scary. There’s still a lot we don’t know about COVID.”

COVID and delusions

Bland, Handfield argued, was “under the influence of delusion” and could not understand the actions that she took on the day of the slaying. During the trial, Bland’s husband testified that she was not acting normal days before Emii’s death.

Handfield pointed out that Bland called her family members — and also went door to door to her neighbors — to warn them not to get the COVID vaccine because it was “the mark of the devil.”

The day of Emii’s killing, Bland told her family members they needed to get baptized because “Jesus was coming, and she wanted them to go to heaven together,” the attorney said.

In her delusion, Bland tried to kill her husband because he resisted the baptism. Handfield told the judge her line of thinking was along the lines of: “You don’t want to be saved. You don’t want to be baptized. You are a demon.”

Handfield also highlighted how Bland’s children, other family members and neighbors testified that she was a loving mother — and that the killing was inconsistent with the Bland they knew.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Utset, however, painted a different picture.

Utset argued that Bland was in a “pressure-cooker situation” taking care of six children, two of whom were still in diapers, while homeschooling the four school-aged children. On top of that, Bland was doing all the housework, including renovations, on her own because her husband was working 12 to 14 hours a day.

Bland, Utset added, had no mental-health diagnosis that could explain her behavior, and she told investigators she had never heard voices until the day of the killing. Bland was obsessed with religion, but that did not amount to insanity, the prosecutor argued.

“It’s odd behavior, but it’s not psychosis,” Utset said. “The voices and the COVID psychosis is an embellished and fabricated story.”

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