Niles mother pleads guilty in connection with infant’s death
Published 9:07 am Tuesday, September 1, 2015
A Niles woman pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday in connection with the death of her infant son.
Jessica Lynn Sheffield, 35, is scheduled to be sentenced on the morning of Sept. 28 in Berrien County Trial Court in Niles.
Jessica Lynn Sheffield
In exchange for Sheffield’s plea, Assistant Prosecutor Jerry Vigansky said he would recommend a sentence of 210 days in jail.
Judge Dennis Wiley accepted Sheffield’s guilty plea during a status conference Monday in the Niles courtroom.
Sheffield said Monday during the hearing that after changing her 6-month-old son on Sept. 20 of last year, she forgot to properly hook up a heart and breathing monitor that doctors had prescribed for her baby.
She admitted, tearfully, that her infant son died as a result of her negligence.
According to court documents, a police investigation revealed that Sheffield was intoxicated at the time of the incident and the only parent home with the baby. A blood test showed her as having a blood alcohol content of 0.21, according to the complaint and warrant.
Police also obtained data from the breathing and heart rate monitor that showed the monitor had not been used in the 15-plus hours prior to the baby being reported as not breathing to the 911/dispatch center, according to court documents.
The incident occurred in the 3100 block of S. 13th Street in Niles Charter Township. Berrien County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched there at 7:17 p.m. for a report of an infant not breathing.
The baby was pronounced dead at Lakeland Hospital in Niles.
