A Virginia Beach jury found a woman not guilty of her 5-month-old's 2024 drowning after a four-day trial in which prosecutors alleged leaving the infant in a bathtub unattended constituted child neglect and felony murder.

Brianna Candelaria was 20 when she gave birth to Valentino Lopez a day before his due date on Feb. 16, 2024.

Candelaria's relationship with the baby's father was limited, and by the time Valentino was born his father was married to another woman and living separately from his son, according to Candelaria's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Melissa Bray. Bray said Candelaria, a cosmetology and hair care student, was staying with her mother before moving into the living room of a friend's first floor Virginia Beach apartment.

On July 29, 2024, it was Candelaria's second day staying with her friend. She told police she rose with her infant around 8 a.m. and was watching a kids TV show before bathing and feeding him in preparation for a noon nap.

In the bathroom, she brought bottled breast milk with baby cereal and a toy for Valentino to chew - his first tooth had emerged the night before. Valentino's usual tub was at his grandmother's, so Candelaria placed him inside a pink bathing chair her friend used for his infant.

Candelaria recounted that she kept the drain open - Valentino preferred to feel water rushing along his feet - as she bathed him with a washcloth.

She noticed that she had forgotten a dry towel in the living room, she told police, and she gave Valentino the wash cloth to chew on while she gathered his bottle and cereal to leave on the kitchen counter before retrieving the towel.

Candelaria told law enforcement it was no more than two to three minutes.

The wash cloth Valentino was playing with had floated to the drain, clogging the water's flow.

A 911 call Candelaria made at 11:27 a.m. shows she grabbed Valentino from the tub and began performing life-saving measures at the operator's direction.

Medical personnel transported Valentino to Sentara Leigh Hospital. Doctors declared him deceased around 12 p.m.

Candelaria had brought her breast pump to the

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