MODESTO — Kelly Anne Brassart, facing a potential life sentence for the drowning death of her 2-year-old daughter, sobbed and turned away from the television screen rather than watch footage of her child’s lifeless body being pulled from a swimming pool.

The 45-year-old Turlock woman appeared in Stanislaus County Superior Court Thursday morning in a wheelchair, wearing a grey scoop-neck sweater and black slacks, with her blond hair pulled back off her face and gathered into a ponytail at the top of her head. She sat quietly to the left of her attorney, Franz Criego, and nervously twirled her hair throughout the proceedings.

Brassart faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder and felony child endangerment stemming from the Sept. 12 incident. She entered a plea of not guilty on Sept. 16 and bail was set at $2 million. She remains in custody at the Stanislaus County Public Safety Facility.

Pre-trial motions began this week. More pre-trial motions will be heard Monday at 10 a.m. in Department 1, with jury selection expected to begin on Tuesday.

As attorneys made their arguments, a fuller picture emerged of what happened the day the little girl died — one week shy of her third birthday.

Deputy District Attorney Sara Sousa — attempting to get police body-camera footage admitted in an effort to establish Brassart did not know how long the child had been in the water and that she asked the child to let in their dogs, which required opening a sliding glass door that led outside — played nearly 30 minutes of video from Turlock Police Officer Nicholas Gutierrez’s body camera, with Gutierrez in the witness box.

In the video, Gutierrez and Field Training Officer Mike Simbalenko are seen responding to a 911 call at 3:28 p.m. on Sept. 12 in the 4500 block of Fireside Drive. There, they found a child, identified as Daniellé Pires, unresponsive in the swimming pool. Gutierrez retrieved the girl from the water and passed her body to Simbalenko on the other side of a mesh safety-fence. Life-saving efforts began immediately. Over the next several minutes, more emergency personnel, as well as the child’s father, arrived at the house, while Brassart remained in her wheelchair.

According to Criego, Brassart had corrective surgery on both ankles prior to the incident.

In the video, Brassart grew increasingly more hysterical as she came to realize the severity of her daughter’s condition.

At one point she began screaming, “I want to hold my baby! I want to hold my baby!” Later, she asked an officer if she was going to be arrested. When the officer asked why she would think that, Brassart replied, “Because I’m a bad mommy and I’ve done a bad thing.” Soon after that, she frantically asked if her daughter was alive.

According to Sousa, officers suspected Brassart was intoxicated. At 6:41 p.m., three hours after the incident, Brassart registered a blood-alcohol level of .17, Sousa said. Three minutes later, she recorded a .16 — .08 is considered impaired.

Because Brassart was in a wheelchair, a modified sobriety test was administered at 7:18 p.m. California Highway Patrol Officer Matthew Haines, a drug recognition expert, determined Brassart was also on a central nervous stimulant, Sousa said.

Brassart pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse in January 2023 (involving a different child), and was ordered to participate in 52 weeks of parenting courses and given a four-year probation term.

In May 2023, when Daniellé was eight months old, Brassart threw a drink tumbler at the child’s father while he was holding her, Sousa said. Brassart was required to participate in 20 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.