The mother of a toddler who drowned at Camp Cohen Water Park has been arrested in Indiana on a warrant seeking her extradition back to El Paso.
Jessica Weaver, 35, was arrested on Aug. 30 on a fugitive from justice warrant on a charge of injury to a child by omission from El Paso, according to jail records and court documents in Elkhart, Indiana.
Weaver is being held without bond at the Elkhart County Correctional Complex, according to online jail records. She is scheduled to have a court hearing on Sept. 18 in Indiana. She has waved extradition.
El Paso DA: Mother was 'not paying attention' when boy drowned
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks said Weaver faces a felony charge of injury to a child by omission in connection with the 3-year-old boy's drowning.
Weaver was “not paying attention to the child and the child drowned," Hicks said, explaining that Weaver is accused of putting her son in danger by failing to properly care for the boy while he was swimming.
Weaver's son, Anthony Leo Malave, died at a hospital on May 14, a day after he was found unresponsive in a pool while he and his mom were visiting Camp Cohen Water Park at 7900 Gateway North Blvd. in Northeast El Paso.
The child's death was investigated by police detectives with the Crimes Against Persons Unit who interviewed numerous witnesses and gathered videos of that day, Hicks said.
Hicks said that signs posted at the water park say a child has to be under the care of an adult. “She wasn’t doing that," he said.
“It’s important to understand that the lifeguards who were there are not babysitters," Hicks said.
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The El Paso District Attorney's Office had initially declined to comment on the case that Weaver faces in El Paso, saying it was because it is still under investigation before having a news conference in the afternoon.
Hicks added that Weaver had left El Paso and was located in Indiana by the U.S. Marshals Service. She has waived extradition and is expected to be brought to El Paso in the coming weeks. Bond has been set at $100,000.
The case has yet to be presented to a grand jury, which will decide whether Weaver will be indicted, Hicks said.
The toddler's drowning sparked fierce reaction on social media with some commenters blaming the mother, who in turn is accusing the city-run water park of inadequate safety measures. Camp Cohen is one of four city-owned water parks.
Mother's lawsuit accuses El Paso water park of negligence
Earlier this summer, the preschooler's mother filed a $1 million lawsuit accusing the city of El Paso of negligence leading to the drowning of her young son at the water park.
Weaver lost her only child and has "experienced unimaginable suffering and anguish as a result" of what the lawsuit claims was gross negligence at Camp Cohen Water Park, stated the lawsuit filed on June 30.
The lawsuit names as defendants the city of El Paso, Destination El Paso (the city's tourism branch which oversees its water parks) and ASM Global, the international venue management and live events production company that manages Destination El Paso. The city does not comment on pending litigation.
The drowning occurred during a seasonal "soft opening” for the water park, located on what was previously a parking lot of the old Cohen baseball stadium.
The lawsuit alleges conduct by water park staff "clearly shows that safety was not a priority" and staff were "too concerned with packing the water park with people andensuring that the live band was playing."
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The lawsuit also makes an allegation that video footage at the water park was “conveniently” destroyed by the city, which should have maintained it.
Camp Cohen was “severely understaffed and that the few lifeguards on duty were undertrained and had no idea what they were doing," the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit mentions an El Paso Times article from February 2022 about the city seeking new lifeguards for its new water parks that were to soon open, stating applicants must be 16 years or older and “no experience required.”
“Defendant’s lack of concern for the safety of their water park guests, especially young children, was already abundantly clear long before Camp Cohen Water Park even opened," the lawsuit stated.
