The mother of a Florida toddler whose death was ruled a homicide on Tuesday has been charged with first-degree murder, according to jail records.
On Wednesday, Maryanne Louise Schwartz, 22, was originally arrested on a warrant for one count of felony child abuse, investigators said.
The first-degree murder charge was added later on.
“Our homicide detectives, this is a priority for them. They’ll continue to work it around the clock,” said Capt. Angelo Nieves of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
According to investigators, Schwartz called 911 and reported that her 3-year-old daughter was struck by a hit-and-run driver Friday night. The girl, Yeliani Schwartz-Ojeda, died at a hospital Saturday.
On Tuesday, the Orange County medical examiner ruled that Yeliani's death was a homicide, saying her injuries weren't caused by a vehicle.
During the investigation into Yeliani's death, hospital staff reported to investigators that another of Schwartz's children had "multiple bruises on his body that were not consistent with normal child activities."
Prior to release of the medical examiner's report Tuesday, Schwartz was in court trying to regain custody of her 2-year-old son, who was placed in foster care following Yeliani's death.
Judge Alicia L. Latimore said Schwartz's son would remain in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
"There were concerns about the bruising in several stages of healing. And there's a concern that the body temperature when the child came into the hospital was concerning based on the time frame the mother and paramour gave," said DCF investigator Chandra Jones.
After questioning from detectives, Schwartz was taken to the Orange County Jail on Wednesday afternoon.
“A tactic of law enforcement is certainly to charge an individual with a crime, and keep them detained and under prosecution while they investigate another, possibly more serious, crime. It ties the defendant up,” said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer. “They’re going to weigh heavily on the forensics, and secondly, they’re going to see if there’s any witnesses that may shed light on what happened to that child prior to the child being taken to the hospital.”
