Patricia Ripley, 51, faces charges including first-degree murder for the drowning of her 9-year-old son Alejandro in a Miami canal. Her lawyers argue that police used coercive tactics, including religious appeals, to obtain her confession.
The incident occurred on May 21, 2020, when surveillance video allegedly captured Ripley pushing her autistic and nonverbal son into the canal in southwest Miami-Dade. Bystanders pulled the boy from the water, but he did not survive. Ripley initially told officers that an armed robber had taken her son after a car crash, according to an arrest affidavit.