New Jersey

4 years prison for NJ woman who allowed baby to suffocate as she slept

Michelle Stanton, 29, of Villas, NJ, has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of manslaughter after she fell asleep while drunk with her infant son and allowed him to suffocate when he fell against a wall

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A 29-year-old New Jersey woman, who allowed her 6-month-old son to suffocate after she fell asleep drunk, has been sentenced to serve four years in prison, officials said.

According to law enforcement officials in Cape May County, New Jersey, Michelle Stanton, 29, of Villas, NJ, has been sentenced to serve four years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the June 2023 death of her 6-month-old son.

Court documents note police officers were called to Stanton's home at about 3 a.m. on June 25, 2023, on a report of an infant death.

Follow up investigation found, court documents note, on that evening Stanton consumed 12 to 14 "airplane bottles of vodka" before falling asleep with her son in her arms.

She awoke hours later to find the child unresponsive after the boy had fallen between the mattress of her bed and the bedroom wall, court documents note.

Police said an autopsy found the child suffocated after being pinned between the bed and the wall.

In September, Stanton plead to manslaughter for her role in this incident.

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