ST. CLOUD – A Central Florida dad has been arrested in the 2024 drowning death of his infant daughter.
On April 21, 2024, Joshua Ruiz-Martinez is accused of leaving his daughter alone in a bathtub while he played video games, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
She was later found face-down and unresponsive in the bathtub.
Ruiz-Martinez, 32, told first responders he had put the infant in the tub with water up to her stomach while he went to get a bottle because she was fussy, according to the arrest report.
But investigators were able to access the computer game Ruiz-Martinez had been playing that day, and it showed he was actively playing the game while the infant was in the tub.
The sheriff’s office said the timestamps on the game conflicted with what Ruiz-Martinez told them happened.
When confronted with evidence he had been playing the game at the time of the incident, Ruiz-Martinez got emotional and responded, “I killed my daughter for a game? Please tell me I did not kill my daughter for a game,” the arrest warrant says.
He’s now facing aggravated manslaughter charges.
It’s unclear why the arrest happened nearly a year after the drowning.
