Mom on Facebook sentenced in son's drowning death

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Colorado Springs Gazette

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) -- A northern Colorado woman who was playing a game on Facebook while her 13-month-old baby drowned in a bathtub was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Shannon Johnson, 34, of Fort Lupton was also sentenced to five years of mandatory parole following her prison term.

The Greeley Tribune reported that Johnson cried as District Judge Thomas Quammen told her he didn't think she was a bad person or that she killed her son on purpose. That doesn't mean what she did wasn't criminal, he added.

Johnson was charged with child abuse that knowingly or recklessly caused death. She pleaded guilty to negligent child abuse in March.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TODDLER_DEATH_FACEBOOK_COOL-?SITE=COCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[derby378]

1. And here's a satirical look at the game she was playing when her baby died

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlQ26Bnf2pI

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. What good does this do?

The judge acknowledged there was no willfull malice - it was a mistake, a fucking BIG mistake, that she will live with the rest of her life. Why cost the taxpayers 400,000 dollars to incarcerate her for 10 years? Do they think she'll learn some kind of lesson that she has not yet learned?

Give her a year in county and 5 years probatioin - she'll punish herself enough.

[moobu2]

6. I would'nt be surprised if she

only spends a couple of years in prison anyway. She is responsible for the death of child, after all, so 10 years on paper isn't all that much time. The punishment sends a message to others too. I don't know, I think the punishment was pretty lenient myself.

[LisaL]

8. And if she decides to have and raise more kids this way?

No biggie, right?

[WatsonT]

26. Negligence is a crime when it causes someones death

If I were to drive around blindfolded and hit someone I wouldn't have killed anyone intentionally.

But it's also not a habit we want to encourage.

[uppityperson]

3. What if she'd been reading a book? 13 months is too young to be left alone in a tub, but not sure

what this prison sentence is meant to do.

[LisaL]

7. What exactly do you think prison is supposed to do?

Isn't it supposed to punish someone for doing the wrong thing?

[uppityperson]

9. She was stupid enough to leave her 13 month old alone in the bath, baby died, and 10 yrs in

prison should punish her for that. I'd rather see her get a yr, then probation, community service and educate her.

[LisaL]

10. How many children could she have during her 10 years probation?

According to her she's been leaving that child alone in a bathtub for weeks, so it's not like this was a one time thing. The child also had a seizure in the past. How much education does she need to figure out this is not a thing to do?

[uppityperson]

11. How many children can she have after her conjugal visits in prison. You want to imprison her to keep

her from breeding. You want her locked up so she will not have other children? And the only way you can figure out to make sure she doesn't breed, doesn't risk killing other infants is to lock her up?

Seriously? I thought you just said prison was to punish her. Glad you clarified that you want her locked up so she can't have any other kids.

[LisaL]

12. And you think a 34 year old woman needs education to figure

out leaving a young child alone in a bathtub is a bad idea? O'key.

[uppityperson]

13. Obviously.

[uppityperson]

14. dupe

[LisaL]

15. I personally am not sure that there is much hope of educating

a woman who made it to 34 but have not figured out that leaving a young child (who had a seizure in the past) in a bathtub by himself is a bad idea. But hey, maybe that's just me.

[uppityperson]

17. I have found there are 2 groupings of women having babies. Neither is much smarter.

The first have babies young, right out of (or in) high school, say 18-24 yr old range. The other grouping wait and have theirs later, early to mid-30's.

There is nothing about being 34 vs 22 that makes one smarter as far as how you treat an infant, what you do, how you raise them. Yes, some of us do mature during that decade but still we don't get an owner's manual.

I was an older mom, never ever ever left my child alone in the bath until was probably 4, though was told by a friend I should have sooner I wasn't comfortable with it. I had learned in that decade that infants drown quickly.

However, I did stupid things, ALL parents do stupid things. Not as stupid as this was, but stupid things.

I know a 21 yr old who is a wonderful mother, very caring, very nuturing, very aware of the risks and she would never leave a 13 month old alone in the bath.

I don't know this woman or her story, but yes, 34 yr olds still need to be educated about parenting (whether male or female). I've seen many parenting classes with the 2 mixtures of ages of moms in them. Simply being 34 doesn't give you smarts, some are so set in their ways that they don't have a clue how fast things can go bad.

I just don't see how locking this woman up for 10 yrs to either punish her or prevent her from breeding is the best use of the system's resources.

[uppityperson]

18. You support imprisoning her to keep her from breeding? Seriously? That is why she should be in jail?

[LisaL]

19. Obviously the purpose of prison is not to prevent someone from

reproducing.

[uppityperson]

20. That is what you seem to be saying with these 2 posts here replying to less jail, more probation.

"And if she decides to have and raise more kids this way?"

"How many children could she have during her 10 years probation?"

[LisaL]

21. If prison is punishment, presumably the sentence should be enough

of a lesson to prevent someone from doing it again. But if that someone just got a slap on the wrist?

[uppityperson]

22. I agree with that. Simply confused about your "having other children" if not in prison

statements.

That poor little kid. Getting past the outrage at the mother, that poor little kid.

[WatsonT]

27. Education is a wonderful thing, but it can't solve every problem

For instance: who is unaware of the horrible side affects of smoking?

And yet people smoke.

Obviously education isn't 100% effective.

[Ian David]

4. I can finally sleep with my windows open again. n/t

[freshwest]

23. IDK

[FourScore]

5. yet bush and his cabal still run free. n/t

[SheilaT]

16. I don't care how "independent"

you think your kid is. You DON'T leave a 13 month old baby alone in a bathtub.

She also says she didn't want him to hear the word "no". Any parent who tries to raise a child without ever saying "no", is going to have a VERY difficult time, and once the kid is about four or so, will be a selfish monster who expects to be catered to in every way.

It's true that she didn't deliberately kill him, but she showed an abysmal lack of sense. If she'd been a 17 year old, I'd be thinking this was another case of someone far too young to be a mother. But she was 34 years old! This is someone who is never going to understand what it really takes to raise a baby to childhood, and then to adult hood.

edited to fix punctuation error.

[chatnoir]

24. Didn't want him to be a "mama's boy"

Yet he also wanted to be left alone? An "independent" 13 month old with whom she didn't want to use the word "no"?

Her statements seem incongruous.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. I wonder what the sentence would have been for a father in the same circumstances.

I've seen several articles on studies of punishment for accidental deaths of unattended children where the pattern is that women, particularly mothers, are more likely to receive harsh sentences for leaving a child in a car.

Here's a link to one AP analysis:
http://ggweather.com/heat/ap_sentencing.htm

An Associated Press analysis of more than 310 fatal incidents in the past 10 years found that prosecutions and penalties vary widely, depending in many cases on where the death occurred and who left the child to die - parent or caregiver, mother or father:

-Mothers are treated much more harshly than fathers. While mothers and fathers are charged and convicted at about the same rates, moms are 26 percent more likely to do time. And their median sentence is two years longer than the terms received by dads....