Patricia Saintizaire faces an expected life sentence after jurors heard evidence of repeated abuse inside the family’s Davenport home.

BARTOW, Fla. — A Polk County jury has convicted a Florida mother of first-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old adopted son, concluding a case built on medical evidence, home-surveillance recordings and an older child’s account of abuse inside the family’s Davenport residence.

Patricia Saintizaire, 38, was also convicted on child-abuse and witness-tampering charges connected to the May 2024 death of Bryan Boyer, according to court reporting and an announcement from the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit. The verdict followed a trial lasting about 10 days. Saintizaire is scheduled to return to court Aug. 14, when she is expected to receive a life sentence for the murder conviction.

The verdict marked the first final determination of criminal responsibility in a case that began when hospital staff notified the Polk County Sheriff’s Office that a young child had died under suspicious circumstances. Investigators said Bryan had attended school on May 1, 2024, and appeared happy, active and uninjured before returning home. By that evening, he could not walk normally, had trouble sitting upright and was becoming unresponsive. He was taken first to a local hospital and then flown to an Orlando hospital, where he died.

Medical examiners determined that Bryan died from assault and blunt-force trauma and classified his death as a homicide, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities said he suffered a deep injury to his liver and a significant tear to his spleen, both associated with a forceful strike to the abdomen. Investigators also described bruises and scars in different stages of healing, which they said showed that the fatal injuries were not an isolated event. The physical findings became a central part of the prosecution’s argument that Bryan had endured repeated abuse before his death.

Prosecutors also relied on recordings from cameras at the home. Sheriff Grady Judd said after Saintizaire’s arrest that one recording showed Bryan’s hands tied behind his back before he was thrown into a backyard swimming pool. Another recording showed the child lying face down while being struck on the back with an object, authorities said. Judd said the boy did not appear to resist, describing his reaction as though such treatment had become normal. The videos were not evidence of the fatal encounter itself, but authorities said they documented the conditions Bryan experienced while living in the home.

Bryan had been adopted from Haiti and brought to the United States in April 2023, when he was 3 years old, according to investigators. He had lived in Florida for a little more than a year when he died. Authorities said Saintizaire was responsible for disciplining the children in the home. She denied to detectives that she used physical punishment, while her husband told investigators that she handled discipline. No reliable information reviewed for this report showed that her husband was charged in Bryan’s death.

The events of Bryan’s final evening were described in statements from his older adopted brother, who was 16 at the time. Authorities said the teenager had been in another room for about two hours before Saintizaire told him to bring Bryan food. When he found the younger boy, Bryan appeared weak and lethargic, struggled to sit up and could not walk. Saintizaire said the child was pretending and told the teenager to feed him, investigators said. Bryan could not eat, later lost consciousness and received CPR from his brother before he was taken for emergency care.

The teenager initially denied witnessing abuse, according to the sheriff’s office. After Saintizaire was jailed and he was placed in protective custody, however, he told detectives that she had instructed him to remain silent so she would not get into trouble. Investigators also said he reported being threatened with a gun. That account formed the basis of the allegation that Saintizaire tried to interfere with a witness. The jury’s witness-tampering verdict indicated that prosecutors proved that charge beyond a reasonable doubt, although the full trial record was not available in the sources reviewed for this article.

Saintizaire’s conviction changed the legal posture of the case. When she was arrested in May 2024, the sheriff’s account described accusations that had not yet been tested at trial. She was held without bond on the murder charge while prosecutors prepared their case. The July 2026 verdict means those allegations have now resulted in criminal convictions after jurors heard the evidence and received instructions from the court. The precise sentence remains for Circuit Judge J. Kevin Abdoney to impose at the scheduled August hearing.

The case also highlighted the importance of distinguishing among the different forms of evidence presented in a child-death prosecution. The autopsy addressed how Bryan died and documented older injuries. The surveillance recordings showed earlier episodes of treatment inside the home. The older brother supplied an account of Bryan’s final condition and of alleged efforts to keep him from speaking freely. School employees provided a contrasting picture of Bryan as a child who appeared happy during the day. Together, prosecutors used those separate sources to establish a pattern leading to the fatal injuries.

Judd said at the time of the arrest that investigators were deeply disturbed by what they found. He described Bryan as a cheerful child whose treatment at home could not be reconciled with the way school employees remembered him. His public comments were made before the trial and reflected the sheriff’s interpretation of the evidence gathered during the investigation. Jurors later reached their own decision after the material was presented in court, where Saintizaire had the right to challenge the state’s witnesses and evidence.

Some details of the trial remain unavailable in the public reports reviewed for this article, including whether Saintizaire testified, how her lawyers addressed each recording and what specific instructions jurors received on the child-abuse counts. The available accounts also differ in how they describe the number and wording of those counts. They consistently report, however, that she was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and tampering with a witness, with additional reporting describing another child-abuse conviction.

Bryan’s death occurred about 13 months after his arrival in the United States. Investigators said some marks on his body appeared older, while others developed during the period he lived in Florida. Authorities did not publicly identify a single outside witness who saw the fatal blow. Instead, the prosecution’s case connected the medical findings from his death with the surveillance footage, the teenager’s observations and statements made during the investigation. The jury’s verdict shows that it accepted that evidence as sufficient to convict Saintizaire of premeditated murder under Florida law.

For now, Saintizaire remains in custody following the verdict. Her Aug. 14 hearing is expected to determine the formal terms of imprisonment and the sentences attached to the remaining convictions. Any post-trial motions or appeal would proceed separately, and no appellate ruling had been reported as of Monday. Until the judge enters the sentence, the conviction is final at the trial-court level but the punishment has not yet been formally imposed.

Author note: Last updated Aug. 3, 2026.