Gloucester News

Mathews Mother Sentenced to 15 Years After Killing Her baby in Bathtub

Reporter Kaylee Walls

Twenty Four year old Miranda Gilbert was found guilty of scalding her toddler to death in March of 2019. The incident took place February 1, 2018, in a trailer off of John Clayton Memorial Highway.

Judge Jeffery W. Shaw sentenced Gilbert to 15 years on a count of homicide and two counts of child neglect charges both at five years, running simultaneously with the 15 years of homicide.

Commonwealth Attorney Tom Bowen presented evidence that Brayden Blenaru had second and third degree burns on 73 percent of his body. More evidence was collected as some of the child’s skin and fingernails had fallen of in the tub at the time of the bath with water at an estimated 155 degrees. When examined by the State Medical Examiner it was decided that the child’s body had shown signs of “inflicted thermal injury”, or that the baby was intentionally held down in the scalding water.

After the autopsy the charges were upgraded in July to include first degree murder along with three counts of felony child neglect and felony homicide.The first degree murder charge was thrown out due to the uncertainty of the second group of investigators in which the burns were intentional. October of 2018, Gilbert pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child neglect and a count of felony homicide. However, Gilbert still says that the child’s death was purely accidental.

Gilbert’s initial statement claimed that she had run a bath for Brayden because he had a doctors appointment later that evening. She says that she filled the bath up with around 4 inches of water and left him with his bath toys while she went to get a diaper. Gilbert says that she started a load of laundry while she was by the washer, with her one year old child in the bath by himself. Originally Gilbert claimed that she was away from the bath at most one to two minutes, however later, she claimed that it could have been about five minutes. When Gilbert came back to the tub, she found her child face down in the water. She claims that the baby must have turned on the hot water as he had seen his older siblings doing.

Gilbert said in court that what took place was “the worst mistake of my life,” and “I can’t change yesterday. I can’t ever get Brayden’s smile back. I can’t ever hear that laugh again”.