Pinellas’s mother is 45 years in prison for the death of a child son

On an autumn day in 2019, Burgandie Márquez gets angry during a phone call and threw his little son Mason on the floor, prosecutors say, which makes his head break back.

Márquez, who was then 30, grabbed the 5 -month -old boy under his arm and ran down the stairs in a house in Palm Harbor, the authorities alleged, which allowed the child’s head to be without support.

Mason died four days later. Pinellas prosecutors accused Márquez of first degree murder and decided to look for the death penalty.

More than five years later, the case has ended in a guilt agreement that will give Márquez the opportunity to leave prison someday. Márquez last week declared himself guilty of the Minor Office for Second Device in exchange for a 45 -year prison sentence.

The plea and the judgment of March 5 conclude a case that raised questions in the department of children and families about whether it could have done to protect Mason, who was exposed to drugs in the uterus by a mother who had a known story of mental health and drug abuse. A review of the department after Mason’s death discovered that a “safe care plan” for the child and that the danger he faced was never properly evaluated.

The events that led to Márquez’s children’s murder and abuse He suffered his fatal wounds during a three -day visit with his mother.

Mason’s father hoped to meet with Márquez and the child that day and when she did not appear, she began calling and sending text messages, according to a report from the children’s and family department presented in March 2020. One of the calls was answered by a Sheriff of the Pasco County that told the father that Mason was “in anguish at a local gas station,” says the report.

Márquez told them that the baby was not acting normal and she believed she was having a seizure. The child’s eyes were dilated, he seemed to have a bruise on his forehead and the dark shading around his eyes. I was also in respiratory anguish.

Mason was transferred by plane to St. Joseph hospital in Tampa, where he was diagnosed with severe brain swelling and bleeding. The medical staff confirmed that the baby’s condition was the result of inflicted injuries and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office began an investigation.

Márquez initially gave an explanation of the child’s wounds that “was not plausible”, but then admitted actions that the authorities concluded that they would lead to the child’s death, according to the report.

Márquez said he frustrated as he argued by phone with Mason’s father and, in “an urine wrath,” he shook the boy from the floor and grabbed him on the sides, causing his head to go back twice, he affirms the report, citing information collected during the criminal investigation. Then he ran down a stretch of stairs with the child’s head without support. She noticed that she seemed sleepy and stunned.

The deputies arrested Márquez for a position of child abuse. Mason was declared brain dead the day after that. He was taken from the life support and declared dead the next day. An autopsy determined that he died of trauma to his brain and neck.

The prosecutors then added the murder position.

Pinellas-Pasco state prosecutor Bruce Bartlett said that the “strange” circumstances about the murder and history of Márquez abuse directed their office towards the death penalty.

Bartlett said that Mason’s family felt comfortable with a minor sentence and, once the prosecutors began to negotiate a guilt agreement, asked how long they wanted to see it in prison.

“They returned with 45 years,” Bartlett said. “Life should be, but 45 years is quite long.”

Márquez’s lawyer, Bjorn Brunvand, said he did not believe that the circumstances were worth the death penalty and that he was prepared to take the case to a jury.

“With these types of cases, there is always the question of what measure it happened was intentional or not,” he said. “We were ready for the trial, but I think this was a good resolution that allows the opportunity at some point for her to meet with society and avoid the death penalty or death in prison with a life imprisonment.”

Márquez received credit for the five and a half years he has been in the Pinellas County prison since his arrest.

Márquez and Mason’s father had another son together who was almost 2 years old when Mason died. The father also had an 11 -year -old son who was Mason’s half.

The family was the subject of five reports to the State’s Direct Line for a period of 17 months before Mason’s death, according to records.

Due to its previous history, Chad Poppell, then director of the Department of Children and Families, sent a team to “review the previous interventions with the family and evaluate possible systemic problems within the local care system”, according to a report by the 12 -page department dated October 30, 2019, which describes the findings.

Mason was classified as a “substance exposed to the newborn” after the blood of his umbilical cord positive for cocaine, cannabis and an opioid used to treat drug addiction, according to the report. There were also concerns that his mother was under the influence when he visited the newborn when he recovered in the hospital. Márquez then admitted to having used cocaine crack that day, according to the report.

The review found that child welfare professionals had access to “an abundance of information” about the abuse of substances and the family’s mental health history, as well as previous reports of suspicions of injuries inflicted to another child. Despite this, the report says: “The information was not considered in its entirety or reconciled conflict information to properly evaluate the present and imminent danger.”

“Madam. The use of Márquez cocaine and the impact resulting from substance abuse in the child were fired and not completely explored or considered when evaluating the current danger,” says the report. “In addition, its use of marijuana, another illegal substance, was minimized.”

The report said that in May 2019, the authorities received information that the older child, who is autistic and non -verbal, was presented to school with bruises, but the injuries were not evaluated in a timely manner. Márquez was also hard with the boy and sometimes he seemed to be “out of control,” says the report.

If the available information and observations of the family would have been considered properly, “the threats of danger present and/or imminent should have been identified, which results in children identifying as” insecure “, which require a security plan at home or outside the home with a non -negotiable service intervention,” says the report.

The second main finding of the review involved the abuse of substances from Márquez and its effects on his son.

When Mason was born, Márquez gave positive for THC and suboxone, a medicine to treat opioid addiction, and Mason’s umbilical cord positive for THC, suboxone and cocaine.

Because the child was born exposed to substances and showed signs of retirement at birth, the federal law requires that child protection workers have begun a “safe attention” plan. In part, these plans involve monitoring the child’s health and progress after being discharged from the hospital and making sure that he and the mother receive treatment. That was never done, according to the report.

“There were several lost opportunities in which a safe care plan should have been developed or updated, even by the attending physician … (Child Protection Researcher) and the Visitor of the Home through the healthy home program,” says the report.

The report does not establish what actions, if any, the Department of Children and Families took to address the findings of the review. The department did not provide a comment to Thursday afternoon despite the repeated efforts of Tampa Bay Times to obtain one.