FLORIDA MOM FOUND NOT GUILTY BY INSANITY ON 3 COUNTS
A Florida mom’s COVID insanity defense worked: a judge found her not guilty over her toddler’s drowning and two stabbings.
Precious Bland was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 23, 2026, on aggravated manslaughter and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O made the ruling after Bland waived her right to a jury trial.
The case goes back to August 23, 2021, at a home near Northwest 99th Street and 30th Avenue in West Little River, Miami. NBC 6 South Florida reported that the arrest report quoted Bland as saying, “Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all.”
What investigators said happened
Investigators said Bland insisted her family needed to be baptized and told them she would do it in a bathtub.
The arrest report stated that Bland held her 15-month-old daughter underwater until the child became unresponsive.
When her husband stepped in, a struggle followed and Bland stabbed him multiple times, investigators said.
The husband escaped with some of the couple’s children. Bland stabbed her teenage daughter in the forearm before she left the home, the arrest report stated.
Officers found the toddler unresponsive in the bathtub. She was taken to Jackson North Medical Center and pronounced dead there. The husband and teenage daughter were treated at a hospital and released.
The trial and the ruling
Defense attorney Larry Handfield argued that Bland suffered a psychotic episode triggered by COVID-19 and experienced command hallucinations. He said the voices told her to baptize family members who were also infected.
Prosecutors did not buy it. “The voices and the COVID psychosis are a fabrication and an embellished story,” State Prosecutor Elizabeth Utset said at trial, CBS Miami reported.
Prosecutors argued Bland may have had mental-health issues but understood what she was doing. Utset also said, “COVID is not the issue in this case.”
The judge disagreed. He ruled that Bland did not understand the nature or consequences of her actions when she killed her daughter. “There is zero credible explanation other than her psychotic state,” de la O said, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The defense described Bland’s condition as temporary insanity. Handfield said he believed it was the first successful COVID-related insanity defense in the country.
What happened next
No sentence was imposed. Bland was allowed to remain at home while the court decided whether she needed further mental-health treatment or commitment.
Florida law allows a person found not guilty by reason of insanity to be placed on conditional release, with a treatment plan and periodic monitoring, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Bland later told NBC 6 she was rebuilding her life, was receiving therapy and treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs and did not believe she needed hospitalization.
“It’s a woman who served our country for five years… living the American dream until COVID came. She didn’t ask for COVID,” Handfield told the station. “This was COVID.”
Attorney General James Uthmeier said, “In a bench trial — where the judge made the decision, not a jury — he allowed a woman off on an insanity defense after she drowned her baby. This is unacceptable.”
Fox News reported that Uthmeier and local lawmakers sought the judge’s impeachment. The outlet also reported that the court appointed forensic psychologist Dayra Bodan to assess whether Bland’s condition warranted involuntary hospitalization.
The Miami Herald reported that a further doctor evaluation and testimony from psychiatrists and Bland’s husband were planned for a hearing.
A hearing on Bland’s treatment and release conditions was scheduled for July 6, 2026.
