Mother Of Infant Who Died Gets Plea Deal, Avoids Jail
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - Defense attorneys and prosecutors say a plea deal to keep a mother out of prison is the best option for her family and to serve justice.
Summer Moon was Loveland's first baby of 2010. She died 25 days later from pneumonia and flu and prosecutors blamed her mother, Kayte Davis, for not seeking adequate medical care.
Davis walked out of court with the baby's father after being sentenced to spend the next 5 months in jail when she's not at work, and the next 10 years on probation.
"This case has been a textbook example of what happens when the media takes misinformation from law enforcement and published it," defense attorney Erin Richmond said.
Richmond says the now 21-year-old was charged unfairly because she's relatively poor and uneducated. She took the sick baby to the doctor twice.
"She advised the doctors that the baby had been having coughing spells and was turning purple," Richmond said.
The family tragedy ending with a guilty plea. When Summer Moon died, Davis and the sick infant were sleeping in Davis' mother's garage in Loveland.
"It was heated by a space heater. It had been approved by the Department of Human Services," Richmond said.
"It was a big garage with a small little space heater," prosecutor Renee Doak said.
Doak says the garage bedroom was no place for the sick infant.
"She should have known, many people told her, 'There's something wrong.' A mother, a mom, a person who has another child, should know better," Doak said.
Both attorneys say the plea is the best option for Davis to be a good mother to her other preschool-age daughter.
"My hope is that she takes advantage of all the opportunities that are going to be given to her," Doak said.
"She will be able to demonstrate to the community that she is in fact a good mother and a good parent and that this was a tragic accident," Richmond said.
