BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – This summer, a mother and her boyfriend will go on trial for the murder of a 3-year-old.

In 2021, West Melbourne police said Josh Manns beat Jameson Nance to death while his girlfriend Erica Dotson, a former Health First certified nursing assistant, called 911 and claimed her son drowned in a bathtub.

Prosecutors argue Dotson knew about the ongoing abuse but didn’t protect her son.

They said Dotson told a daycare that Nance’s bruises were from a duck attack.

Last year, a DCF investigator accused of failing to report the abuse, as well, avoided going to jail when she was put on probation.

Thursday, Manns made a new appearance in court.

New court records showed the public defender’s office does not want Manns and Dotson to be tried together.

The defense argued in the documents that a joint trial would deny them a fair trial because what one says could implicate the other.

In one example, the public defender wrote Dotson told police Manns “left him here all day,” referring to Nance’s body.

“If the co-defendant’s statement is introduced to the jury, it will confuse the jury about the extent of each person’s participation,” chief assistant public defender Michael Pirolo wrote.

Manns and Dotson have been in jail without bond since their arrests.

In 2021, police said Manns was arrested on the run in Georgia while Dotson was arrested on what would have been her son’s fourth birthday.

“My son was in the bathtub, and my boyfriend had a seizure, and he said he’s not breathing,” police said Dotson said when she called 911. “By having not done anything to prevent this long-term abuse that was going on, she, in the eyes of the law, has become an accomplice to this,” retired prosecutor Gary Beatty told News 6 reporter James Sparvero in 2021. “A mom who allows this to happen is just as bad as the person who did this — especially in this case, where there were repeated injuries. She was medically trained. She certainly should have known what was going on.”

Manns’ attorneys did not wish to talk about seeking to try Manns and Dotson separately following Manns’ court appearance Thursday.

They told Sparvero they’ll make their arguments to the judge in another hearing in June.

The state is seeking the death penalty when the trial starts Aug. 18.