Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts are two alleged killers from Florida who have been charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of a three week old newborn
According to police reports 911 received a phone call regarding a dead newborn. Officers were told by Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts that the baby was in his car seat when he died in his sleep.
However after questioning Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts their stories began to change.
An autopsy would later reveal that the newborn did not die in his sleep but had died from suffocation and it was determined to be a homicide
Police would later learn that Crystal Garcia had placed the newborn in a car seat, than into the bath and left the newborn. She then blared music to drown out the newborn’s cries for help
Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts would be arrested and have been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and an assortment of other
Crystal Garcia and Anfernee Watts News
A Florida couple has been charged after they allegedly staged their 3-week-old baby’s death to look like he died in his sleep. Investigators instead claim that the child was “intentionally restrained” and left in a bath while his mom played “loud music” to drown out his calls of distress.
Crystal Garcia, 21, and Anfernee Watts, 25, allegedly “provided multiple false and inconsistent statements to law enforcement in an attempt to conceal the true circumstances surrounding the death” of their 3-week-old at a Hollywood, Fla., residence last year, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
The baby, who had been in good health just days earlier, was found unresponsive in a playpen on Aug. 1, 2025. Per the affidavit, the infant was pronounced dead at approximately 1:50 p.m. local time, after police officers and other personnel responded to the Hollywood home where Garcia, 21, and Watts, 25, reside.
Officers spoke separately with the mother and father, the latter of whom allegedly fabricated a story about leaving for an early-morning job interview, which investigators say never occurred.
Watts said he left early in the morning for the interview, while Garcia — after feeding, cleaning and changing the baby — said she put the child down and went to sleep herself.
Crystal Garcia told police that after she woke up, she went to talk to her mother in the home. When she returned to her own room, police said Garcia “noticed something was off as the child usually cries or makes noise and the baby was not doing either.”
She then “touched the baby’s eye to see if he would wake up and she noticed he wasn’t moving. Garcia told officers, per the affidavit, “You know when you see someone when they passed, like it was like that.”
Crystal Garcia did not immediately call 911 or contact anyone else — including her mom, “because she didn’t want to ‘stress her out,’ ” according to the affidavit. Instead, she waited for Watts to return home.
It was later determined that the baby did not die in his sleep, as the Florida parents claimed.
At the time of the initial examination, Dr. Erin Ely with the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office “noted that the baby had begun the process of decomposition,” according to the affidavit.
Months later, in March 2026, Ely determined the baby’s cause of death was suffocation, and the manner of death was homicide.
Crystal Garcia, investigators allege, had “intentionally restrained the baby by tightly wrapping him in a blanket, securing a pacifier in his mouth, and strapping him into a car seat before placing him inside a bathtub and isolating him behind a closed door while loud music played.
“Despite hearing the baby cry, she willfully ignored his distress and failed to check on him for several hours,” police claim in the affidavit. “Upon later observing that the baby was unresponsive and appeared deceased, she failed to immediately seek medical assistance and instead participated in staging the scene to mislead law enforcement.”
Both Garcia and Watts “knowingly participated in the concealment and staging of the scene” before law enforcement arrived, investigators alleged
According to the affidavit, the residence had been “recently cleaned using bleach and wipes, and items within the room appeared altered or removed.”
Watts also “admitted to disposing of baby bottles and other items from the residence,” and Garcia could be seen on surveillance footage holding cleaning supplies and disposing of garbage about 30 minutes before the 911 call alerted police to the baby’s condition, per the affidavit.
That same day, law enforcement said in the affidavit that they had also observed “a disposable changing pad that appeared to have blood spotting on it” in the playpen.
Authorities added that they noticed a bleach smell at the scene, which Watts claimed was from when he “accidentally knocked over” a jar containing bleach while Crystal Garcia was calling 911.
Three days after the baby’s death, on Aug. 4, 2025, Watts’ mom told police that Garcia had admitted to lying about the events. That same day, Garcia also began “continuously” contacting the Hollywood Police Department in attempts to “clarify” information she had previously given police,” the affidavit states.
In voice messages, Garcia said “she ‘Iied’ and wanted to inform [police] that she ‘smothered the baby,’ ” per the affidavit.
Both Watts and Garcia “admitted to fabricating a story to present to law enforcement, placing the deceased baby back into the playpen in an effort to make it appear as though the baby died in his sleep,” the affidavit states.
Garcia and Watts were arrested on Wednesday, April 8, and they have since been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a first-degree felony charge, according to court and jail records viewed by PEOPLE.
Both have also been charged with several other felony charges, including child neglect with great bodily harm, tampering with physical evidence, failure to report death to a medical examiner, and knowingly providing false information to law enforcement during investigation.
Garcia and Watts are both behind bars in Broward County as they await trial. It is not clear if either has legal representation to comment on their behalf.
Florida Couple Allegedly Staged 3-Week-Old Baby’s Bathtub Death, Now Charged
