A Connecticut man has been sentenced to several years in prison following a tragic incident in which he left two children unattended in a bathtub, resulting in the drowning of one child.

On Wednesday, 30-year-old Angel Marcus Rodriguez entered a guilty plea to charges of manslaughter and risk of injury to a child.

The court swiftly handed down a sentence of 15 years, with 10 years suspended. This means Rodriguez will serve five years in prison followed by three years of probation upon his release.

This sentence comes in response to the death of his 7-month-old son, Angel Josiah Rodriguez, and the potential danger faced by the child’s 3-year-old brother.

The tragic event took place on the evening of October 6, 2024, in East Haven, a town located just east of New Haven and part of its metropolitan area.

According to an arrest warrant obtained by the New Haven Register, Rodriguez admitted to leaving his children alone in the bathtub to use a different bathroom, as the toilet in their bathroom was not functioning properly.

Rodriguez did not initially recall how long he was gone on the night in question. Later, the defendant told investigators he was gone for maybe five minutes while the two children were in the bathtub alone.

Angel was found by his grandmother, facedown in the tub, while his older brother was playing with toy cars right beside him.

“He just turned over,” the older boy told his grandmother when she walked in, according to law enforcement.

At such a young age, Angel could not sit up on his own. He was propped up in an Angelcare brand “Back Support” bathing chair, which the company describes as “ideal for newborn babies up to six months or 9 kg/20 lbs.,” according to the warrant.

The grandmother would go on to tell investigators she grabbed both children out of the tub and ran into her son’s bedroom — where she found him talking on his cellphone. Then, she yelled at her son to dial 911 as she performed CPR on the child, police noted.

Those lifesaving efforts were passed on to the children’s aunt, investigators wrote in the warrant, who overheard the shouting upstairs and came running — quickly relieving the grandmother and trying to press life back into the baby boy’s chest.

The children’s grandmother told police she had never before seen her son fill the bathtub up so high. Normally, the water would only reach halfway up the baby’s bathing chair, the woman said.

Rodriguez, speaking to detectives through tears that night, said he left the water on “just a trickle” and that it was only at the level of the baby’s feet when he left the children by themselves.

Investigators also noted other factors that might have contributed to the water levels in the bathtub. Such factors included: whether or not the plug was in the drain — this was unclear; whether or not the water was still running — the grandmother said it was not; or if the 3-year-old had touched the faucet or the plug — Rodriguez said he told his older boy not to touch either faucet or plug. Efforts to interview the surviving child were swiftly abandoned because he could neither understand the questions nor remain focused, police said.

All the while, the mother of the children, Elizabeth Portocarrero, was driving from her work in Stamford to East Haven to pick up the boys.

She spoke during the sentencing hearing and later expressed outrage on the courtroom steps after all was said and done, according to the New Haven Register and New Haven-based ABC affiliate WTNH.

“What do you mean, five years?” she asked out loud. “That’s nothing. I expected something higher for accountability to an innocent child that could barely sit up by himself. There is no moving on from losing a child. It’s more like accepting, living with it, and I have to live for my other son, and that’s what I am going to do. I am going to be strong because one day my time will come and I will be with my son again.”

The since-convicted man addressed the court during the hearing.

“This is a painful action that affects many people here that will last a lifetime,” Rodriguez said. “I just want to apologize to my family and Elizabeth’s family. We are all here because I failed him. I would give anything to have him back or even trade places with him.”

The defendant was originally arrested in April 2025 and charged with manslaughter and two counts each of risk of injury to a child as well as second-degree reckless endangerment.