This Sept. 20, 2011 photo provided by the Washington County, Md., Sheriff's Office shows Yadina Morales. Morales was convicted Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in Hagerstown, Md., of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 15 months in jail for smothering her 2-month-old daughter by passing out drunk on top of her while breast-feeding. (AP Photo/Washington County, Md., Sheriff's Office) (The Associated Press)
HAGERSTOWN, Md. – A Maryland woman who killed her 2-month-old daughter by passing out drunk on top of her while breast-feeding is going to jail.
Twenty-two-year-old Yadina Morales of Hagerstown was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months after entering an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgement that the state has enough evidence to convict.
Prosecutors agreed to drop some charges, including child abuse and reckless endangerment, as part of the plea deal.
Morales was arrested in November after the girl's father came home and found her passed out on top of the unresponsive girl.
Morales registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.256, more than three times the level needed for a drunken driving conviction. The judge says her actions were grossly negligent.
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