LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas mother is accused of attempting to kill her young child by drowning her in the bathtub in a “filthy” house, police said.
Desiree Mason, 31, faces charges of attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon and child abuse, court records showed.
Police said they were called Friday to an apartment on Charleston Boulevard near Christy Lane in the east valley from a mother who said she had “almost abused her own child” and “could not take it anymore,” officers wrote in documents.
Officers responded to the apartment, believing Mason had attempted to drown the 15-month-old child, they said. Responding officers noted the child had a soiled diaper and the bathtub was running.
While speaking to police, Mason told officers she had held the child underwater for about 30 seconds. Police said the child “was at the verge of beginning to inhale water.”
The child was taken to the hospital and was determined to have not been injured, police said.
Police noted parts of the apartment were “filthy,” with several trash bags covering the floor of the apartment, an overflowing kitchen sink and “a drawer from the refrigerator” on the counter with “what appeared to be congealed meat juice with mold growing over it.”
Officers determined “the house was being kept in a manner that was unsafe and unhealthy for humans or animals, especially for a child that is crawling and playing on the ground,” they wrote in the report.
In court Saturday, Judge Holly Stoberski set Mason’s bail at $50,000. Mason remained jailed at the Clark County Detention Center as of Monday afternoon. If she makes bail, she cannot have any contact with her daughter.
