Precious Bland drowned her 15-month-old daughter Emi in 2021. She stabbed her husband. She stabbed her 16-year-old daughter. Then, after a two-day bench trial in Miami-Dade County, Judge Miguel De La O looked at all of that and said: not guilty.
By reason of insanity. Because of COVID.
The defense argument, presented by attorney Larry Handfield, was that Bland — a mother of six — suffered a "psychotic episode triggered by COVID-19" that produced "command hallucinations, with voices telling her to baptize her family members, who were also infected with COVID-19." That's the clinical framing. The plain-English version is that a woman killed her baby, carved up two family members, and a judge decided a positive COVID test constituted a get-out-of-jail card.
The prosecution didn't buy it. State Prosecutor Elizabeth Utset told the court directly: "It's odd behavior, judge, it is, but it's not legal insanity. The voices and the COVID psychosis are a fabrication and an embellished story."
Judge De La O overruled her. In a bench trial — meaning no jury, just one man's judgment — he acquitted Bland on all counts. He even offered his own reasoning for rejecting the alternative motive, stating: "That theory doesn't make sense to me that she decided to do all of the things that she did...because she was angry due to some perceived infidelity."
So the judge rejected the idea that Bland acted out of rage. And he accepted the idea that COVID hallucinations told her to drown her infant daughter in a baptism ritual. One of those theories requires you to believe a virus gives people murder commands. The other requires you to believe people sometimes snap.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier responded within hours. "This was a bench trial. It's time to impeach this judge," Uthmeier posted on X. "My office will be drafting articles of impeachment, and we look forward to working with all legislators who will support."
He didn't stop there. "When you have someone who's drowning a baby, and then a judge in a bench trial is letting her off for insanity, and then she's going to go right back out to the public, this is wrong," Uthmeier said Thursday, as reported by CBS Miami and Twitchy.
Governor Ron DeSantis backed the move with five words: "Time for the Florida House to do its duty."
This isn't the first time Uthmeier has gone after a Florida judge. Earlier this year, he pushed for the impeachment of Leon County Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper after she refused to revoke bond for convicted child predator Daniel Spencer — who then murdered five-year-old Missy Mogle while awaiting sentencing. That case led to the passage of HB 445, "Missy's Law," signed by DeSantis on March 31, 2026, which mandates immediate custody for convicted sexual offenders against minors pending sentencing.
The pattern Uthmeier is establishing is worth watching. A judicial impeachment in Florida requires a two-thirds vote in the House and a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict. It would be the state's first judicial impeachment in decades.
Bland waived her right to a jury trial. That decision put the entire outcome in the hands of one judge. One judge who decided that "COVID psychosis" was a legitimate reason to release a woman who drowned a 15-month-old.
The insanity defense exists for a reason. But somewhere between legitimate mental health crises and a virus being repurposed as a legal shield for killing your own child, a line got crossed. The AG noticed. The governor noticed. Now we find out if the Florida House is paying attention.
