PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Maricopa County’s top prosecutor answered questions on several high-profile cases, including the drowning of a social media influencer’s son, during her regularly-scheduled biweekly press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Arizona’s Family asked Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell about the drowning case of Trigg Kiser, son of Valley social media influencer Emilie Kiser. Earlier this week, Chandler police recommended child abuse charges under criminal negligence against Brady Kiser, Emilie’s husband and Trigg’s father.
Mitchell confirmed the case was submitted to her office this week. “We’re in the process of reviewing it. It’s going to take some time,” she said.
“I don’t want to speak to this case in particular because I haven’t had a chance to review it myself. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about this area. People need to understand not every tragedy is a crime,” she added.
She stressed the difference between civil negligence and criminal negligence and explained her office is investigating to see if there was a criminal aspect to the case.
“Criminal negligence is totally different, and that’s what we’re looking for… that’s what we have to have to file charges in this case,” she explained. “Criminal negligence means that the person fails to perceive, so they don’t perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will happen.”
According to an affidavit, police received a 911 call from Brady reporting the drowning at the family’s Chandler home on May 12. Brady stated that he lost sight of his 3-year-old son and found him in the backyard pool. He then started CPR until emergency crews arrived and rushed the child to the hospital.
Chandler police detectives believe the husband of a TikTok influencer Emilie Kiser should be charged in the drowning of their son. (Source: AZ Family)
The affidavit details that Brady told police that his wife went out with friends, leaving him to care for Trigg and the couple’s newborn. After eating, Brady reportedly saw Trigg playing near the pool, “but this was not uncommon,” as the pool is normally covered.
The father allegedly lost sight of the toddler “for three to five minutes” when he was distracted with the newborn. The affidavit also states that there were cameras in the backyard at the time of the drowning.
Michell had a mixed response when asked about some people believing the couple has suffered enough and a criminal case doesn’t need to add to that.
“I think what you’re saying is do I take into account that maybe some jurors would consider that the parent had suffered enough? And my answer to that is yes and no. No in the sense that it doesn’t factor in as to whether the person satisfies the requirements of the statute, but yes because the filing standard for this office is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and if after reviewing the totality of the circumstances … we feel like that jury might or is likely to find the person not guilty because of that reason, then we have to take that into account,” replied Mitchell.
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Another high-profile case that the county attorney briefly touched on was the case of Timothy Wood, who allegedly locked his girlfriend in a shed for two weeks while he tormented her.
The mother of the victim fears Wood may be released from jail after prosecutors asked detectives to gather additional evidence. However, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Wood remains in custody.
Mitchell stressed that her office did not make the decision not to prosecute Wood. Rather, her office is waiting for more evidence.
“The allegations are very serious. Sometimes we, as prosecutors who have been in the courtroom, see things we want shored up before we proceed. So we send it back to the police to do some additional investigation,” she explained. “That’s not to say that they didn’t do a good investigation in the first place. It’s just perhaps we’ve seen other angles of it.”
She added that Wood’s criminal history doesn’t factor into the prosecution decision. “The prior history that you’re talking about, while it’s important in determining, for example, how this would be handled sentencing-wise, I cannot use prior convictions to prove that he committed this offense. I have to have evidence independent of that that he committed this offense and so that’s what we’re shoring up,” said Mitchell.
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