A Pasco mother charged with the murder of her 6-year-old son will remain in the Pasco County Jail without bond until her court date.
Justine Mroz had a pretrial detention hearing on Monday before Judge Mary Handsel.
The State Attorney's Office entered a Motion for Pretrial Detention in court on October 23. That document outlined the case the state is pursuing for second-degree murder against Mroz.
Courtesy: Pasco County Sheriff's Office
The backstory:
To say the case was shocking understates what Pasco County Sheriff's Deputies found when they arrived at 6070 Drexel Road on October 19.
Pasco Murder Scene
The 911 call described an adult female who identified herself as Justine Mroz. She claimed to have choked her 6-year-old son to death.
Previous Story: Pasco County mother charged with second-degree murder in connection with son’s death
Deputy Troy Cothran Jr. and Deputy Christopher Miller arrived on scene first and entered the home to find Mroz sitting on the floor with self-inflicted wounds to her right arm. Cothran found the child lying next to her, unresponsive and without a pulse, and he began CPR immediately.
Miller called for Fire Rescue transport.
Pasco County Fire Rescue transported Mroz to St. Joseph's Hospital North for treatment of her injuries.
The child was pronounced dead.
What they're saying:
According to the search warrant filed in the case, Pasco County Sheriff's Detective Stephanie Regan responded to the hospital to interview Mroz.
Mroz had been stabilized and agreed to an interview following a Miranda warning.
According to the court documents, Mroz admitted to Detective Regan that she was feeling suicidal over the weekend and placed an order for razor blades on Amazon.
That took place on Friday. On Saturday, she taped a plastic bag over her own head in an attempt to suffocate herself.
That plan failed as she panicked when she couldn't breathe.
Later that evening, she picked up her child from his father's home and put him to bed at home.
On Sunday morning, October 19, she found that her son had vomited in his room. She cleaned him up and placed him in a room to watch television while she did the laundry.
She returned to find him banging his head against the floor. When she intervened, he began to hit her and bite her.
It was at that moment, Detective Regan related in the court document, that Mroz claimed she snapped. She grabbed her son by the throat and choked him until he stopped moving.
It was after that, that she used the razor blades to slice her wrist.
Detective Bryan Fischer wrote that he interviewed Mroz's father, who stated that he received a text from his daughter saying, "I'm sorry family."
According to the court documents, Mroz tested positive for THC.
The search warrant filed in the court requested access to the home to recover the razor blades, plastic bags, tape, rope and string, and digital recording or video recording devices and narcotics, medications and drug paraphernalia.
What's next:
The defense, when presented with the evidence and information from the prosecution from the search warrants and other arrest records, declined to fight against pretrial detention. Judge Handsel ordered her held without bond until her trial.
The Source: The story was written based on court documents including the search warrant, pretrial detention motion and criminal report affidavit.