Etna mother pleads guilty to accidentally killing infant
An Etna woman who accidentally smothered her infant will spend six months on electronic monitoring and three years on probation after she pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter.
June Smith, 29, told investigators she drank about six beers and a shot of watermelon-flavored vodka and smoked marijuana the evening of Sept. 2, before lying down in her bed with her 3-week-old son.
The baby was lying on her chest with his pacifier in his mouth, she told police. She fell asleep, and when she woke up several hours later, he was lying next to her, facedown and not breathing.
She tried to perform CPR on him, but he was pronounced dead later at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
According to the criminal complaint, there was a portable crib in the room next to Ms. Smith’s bed.
“I cannot begin to explain the hurt and pain I feel as a mother,” Smith told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel.
Defense attorney Kenneth Fryncko Jr. said no punishment from the court could be worse that what his client has already experienced.
Smith, who worked as a certified nursing assistant for eight years, lost her job after her arrest.
She has three other children at home, he said, who deserve to have their mother with them.
Judge McDaniel told Smith she believed she had true remorse and ordered her to house arrest.
She also ordered that the defendant have a drug and alcohol evaluation and comply with any recommended treatment.