In Chicago, Victoria Moreno pleaded guilty to first-degree murder nearly four years after 3-year-old Josiah Brown was pushed into Lake Michigan.

CHICAGO, Ill. — An Illinois woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old nephew, bringing a close to a case that began when the boy was pushed into Lake Michigan at Navy Pier in 2022.

Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas Byrne sentenced Victoria Moreno, 38, to the Illinois Department of Corrections after she entered the guilty plea. Court reporting said Byrne found Moreno guilty but mentally ill. The sentence came nearly four years after Josiah Brown was pulled from the lake in critical condition and died six days later. The case had moved slowly through court in part because judges repeatedly considered whether Moreno was mentally fit to stand trial. She ultimately was found fit while taking medication before the case ended with her plea rather than a trial.

The criminal case changed dramatically during the six days between Josiah’s rescue and his death. Moreno was first accused of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child younger than 13. After Josiah died on Sept. 25, 2022, prosecutors upgraded the case to murder. The Cook County medical examiner later determined that the child died from complications of drowning and ruled his death a homicide. Moreno had disputed the accusations before her guilty plea, and one of her attorneys had previously argued that the circumstances did not necessarily rule out an accidental fall. The plea ended the need for prosecutors to prove the murder charge at trial.

The events began Sept. 19, 2022, at the Des Plaines home where Josiah lived with relatives, according to prosecutors’ earlier account of the case. Authorities said Moreno took keys to the family’s vehicle and left with the child without the family’s permission. Prosecutors said relatives were particularly alarmed because Moreno was not supposed to drive and because, about a week earlier, she had taken several children from the home to Navy Pier without permission. During that earlier trip, an older child contacted family members and told them where the group was, according to court reporting from the time.

On the day Josiah was taken to Chicago, prosecutors said Moreno first went with him to the Shedd Aquarium but could not enter because she had cash and could not use it for admission. She then drove to Navy Pier, where she bought food for the boy before taking him outside near the water. Investigators later relied heavily on surveillance video from the pier to reconstruct what happened. Prosecutors said the recording showed Josiah moving beyond chains that separate visitors from the edge of the pier and Moreno following him into the restricted area before pushing him into Lake Michigan.

People nearby became part of the rescue effort after Josiah entered the water. Prosecutors said witnesses heard or noticed what had happened, called for emergency help and obtained a life ring while the child remained in the lake. Moreno did not attempt to pull him out, according to the prosecution’s account and later reporting on the case. Chicago Fire Department divers eventually recovered Josiah after he had been beneath the water for about 30 minutes. He had gone into cardiac arrest and was taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition. Despite treatment, he died six days after entering the lake.

Investigators also focused on Moreno’s statements immediately after the emergency. Prosecutors said that when officers questioned her at Navy Pier, she initially acted as though she did not know the child and portrayed herself as a witness. She later acknowledged that Josiah was her nephew. Moreno also told police she had taken him to Navy Pier to go on the rides, according to accounts of the investigation. Those statements, the surveillance recording and the observations of people who were at the lakefront became central parts of the prosecution’s account as authorities moved from an attempted-murder case to a homicide prosecution.

Witness accounts added another layer to the evidence. One person told authorities that the child could be seen slipping beneath the surface while Moreno remained nearby. Another witness interviewed after the incident said Moreno’s behavior raised concern because she had been at the scene when others arrived but appeared detached from the emergency. The reports consistently described bystanders and emergency personnel as the people who sought help and tried to reach Josiah. Authorities did not accuse Moreno merely of failing to rescue the child; prosecutors said the surveillance video showed her deliberately pushing him into the lake.

The case then spent years moving through competency proceedings. Moreno’s lawyers said she had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder and had received mental-health treatment. In February 2024, a judge found her mentally fit to stand trial as long as she was taking medication. Her lawyers later received permission to obtain another psychiatric examination, extending the court proceedings. Records and local reporting said she was again considered fit with medication shortly before her 2026 plea. Competency addressed whether Moreno could understand the proceedings and assist in her defense; it did not itself decide whether she committed the charged crime.

Those mental-health questions remained relevant when the case was resolved. Reporting on the sentencing said Byrne found Moreno guilty but mentally ill when imposing the 40-year term. That finding accompanied a guilty plea to murder and did not erase the conviction or prison sentence. Earlier in the case, the defense had challenged the prosecution’s description of an intentional push, with an attorney arguing that Moreno being positioned over Josiah near the edge did not necessarily exclude the possibility of an accident. By pleading guilty, Moreno gave up a trial at which jurors otherwise would have been asked to weigh that defense against the surveillance evidence and prosecutors’ reconstruction of the event.

Josiah’s death had been treated as a homicide long before the criminal case reached its final stage. The medical examiner’s ruling followed his death in September 2022, and prosecutors formally replaced the original attempted-murder allegations with murder charges. Josiah’s grandfather, Dan Brown, described the child in contemporaneous reporting as a joyful, energetic boy who loved his father. Family members had spent the days after his rescue hoping he would survive, while authorities investigated how he entered the lake and reviewed the video and witness accounts from Navy Pier.

The 40-year sentence is the most consequential development in a case that for years remained unresolved because of the competency questions and continued psychiatric evaluations. Moreno, who was 34 when Josiah was killed and is now 38, will serve the sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Her guilty plea means the case will not proceed to the murder trial that had been contemplated while courts assessed her fitness. The conviction now formally resolves the prosecution arising from Josiah’s Sept. 19, 2022, trip to Navy Pier and his death six days later.

Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.