Tampa man arrested on manslaughter charge after infant drowns in bathtub

TAMPA — Deputies arrested a 22-year-old Tampa man on Monday after investigators concluded he left an infant unattended in a bathtub, leading to the child’s drowning, records show.

Michael Christopher Hannor was arrested on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child, stemming from the child’s drowning on Feb. 28, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit included in county court records.

The Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at 11:23 a.m. about a child drowning. The name, age and gender of the child, as well as the location of the drowning, were redacted from the affidavit. The Department of Children and Families website states that on that day, a 10-month-old boy died in Hillsborough after he was left in a bathtub unattended.

Hannor told investigators that he had agreed to watch the child and put him in the tub, then left the bathroom to check on another child and look for a mailbox key. He then remembered the boy was in the bathtub, went to check on the child and found the boy floating facedown in the tub and unresponsive, the affidavit states. Hannor estimated he left the child unattended for five to six minutes.

The child’s mother told investigators that she was in the bathroom with Hannor helping to start the child’s bath but then had to leave for work. She said she asked Hannor to get the child ready.

“Okay, I got you,” the mother said Hannor replied. She said Hannor regularly helps her and the children’s father care for the children and “is a good babysitter,” according to the affidavit.

The child’s father was home at the time with the couple’s two other children and said Hannor came into the room where the father was to ask about a mailbox key, the affidavit states. The father said Hannor was in the room for five to 10 minutes, and then about 10 minutes after Hannor left, the father heard him shouting that the baby was drowning.

“The time frame that the defendant was absent from the bathroom while the decedent was left in the tub with the water running is between five and 22 minutes,” the affidavit states.

Hannor was being held Tuesday in a Hillsborough County jail with bail set at $25,000, records show.