An Oklahoma pediatrician accused of killing her 4-year-old daughter on a Florida vacation had her charges downgraded on Thursday.
Neha Gupta faces a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child and is now eligible for bond, KOCO reported.
“We believe that the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office rushed to judgment, went out to Oklahoma, with U.S. Marshals, charged her with, arrested her with first-degree murder, and this confirms that the State Attorney’s Office cannot prove that Dr. Gupta had at any point harmed her child intentionally,” Gupta’s attorney, Michael Mirer, told WTVJ.
Gupta was initially charged with first degree murder after police were called to a rental property in El Portal, where the little girl, Aria Talathi, was found unresponsive by a pool, as CrimeOnline reported.
Gupta, who had traveled to Florida with her daughter the day before, told investigators that she woke up to a noise at 3:20 a.m. on June 27 and discovered a sliding glass door had been opened. She said she went outside and discovered her daughter in the pool and called police at around 3:40 a.m., saying she didn’t know how to swim to retrieve the girl.
“The complainant is advising [that] the juvenile is in the pool and she can’t swim to get to her,” a police dispatcher said.
An autopsy found no water in the girl’s lungs and injuries in her mouth that could have been consistent with smothering.
Gupta was arrested at her home back in Oklahoma on June 30 and extradited to Florida, accused of staging the child’s death as a drowning.
Her attorney called the downgraded charge “a vindication,” according to KOCO.
“[B]ecause the state has now changed the charges from murder to manslaughter, which is interesting because it means Dr. Gupta was negligent to secure the Airbnb where her daughter tragically drowned,” Mirer said.
A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Gupta is still a licensed doctor but has not worked for Oklahoma University Health, where she had been employed, since May.
