A Macoupin County woman who has been charged in the death of a toddler entered into a plea agreement today.
33-year-old Ashley N. Bottoms of Carlinville pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter as an open plea in Macoupin County Court Thursday, according to a report by WICS in Springfield.
Bottoms was arrested for causing the death of a 3-year-old male child after a report was made at the Lichfield Fire Station on October 20th, that a minor child was in distress and moments later determined the child was deceased.
Charging documents allege that earlier that day, Bottoms was breaking up a fight between two juveniles at her Carlinville home, and threw the three-year boy, later identified as Hunter Lee Drew, against a half wall where his head struck a ledge, leading to blunt force trauma and a brain bleed. According to a report by the Springfield State Journal-Register, Bottoms was the girlfriend of the boy’s father.
The charging documents are reported as saying that Bottoms observed that the boy was “in distress” from the head injury but did not seek medical care for him, instead driving him around in a vehicle for three hours.
Bottoms initially pleaded not guilty in November of last year.
Bottoms faces between three and 14 years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge. A charge of endangering the life of a child was dismissed per the plea. Bottoms will next appear in court for sentencing on June 16th.