Tourist mom intentionally left 1-year-old at Florida beach in middle of night, cops say

A tourist from Detroit has been convicted of using the cover of darkness to abandon her 1-year-old son at a Florida beach, according to the State Attorney of Florida’s 7th Circuit.

The guilty verdict was reached on Friday, Nov. 22, just over a year after it happened in Daytona Beach, the State Attorney said in a news release. Daytona Beach is about a 90-mile drive south from Jacksonville.

Shamika Mitchell has yet to be sentenced, but “faces up to 35 years in prison” for aggravated child abuse and unlawful desertion of a child, officials said.

Surveillance video recorded Nov. 8, 2023, provided critical evidence in the case.

“Video ... shows the defendant walking down a beach access staircase with the toddler in her arms just before midnight. Five minutes later, Mitchell comes back from the beach without him,” the State Attorney reported.

“The toddler was found by a woman at Main Street and Ocean Avenue closer to 1 a.m. She told Daytona Beach police that he was in the water on his hands and knees, hands buried in the sand up to his wrists and waves were crashing over his head.”

Police arrived and found the boy to be “unresponsive” with an elevated pulse and shallow breathing, the State Attorney said.

He was taken to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children where he recovered, the State Attorney said.

When questioned about the boy’s whereabouts, Mitchell told investigators she left him with his father, prosecutors said. “However, officers called the toddler’s father and learned he was in Detroit,” the State Attorney said.