PALMDALE : Woman Gets 3 Years in Infant’s Death
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A 20-year-old Palmdale woman whose infant daughter died of suffocation shortly after her birth last year has been sentenced to three years in state prison after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the death.
Lancaster Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever imposed the sentence Monday on Stephanie L. Towles, who gave birth Aug. 1, 1991, in a rented room and admitted placing the infant in a plastic bag. Towles maintained the baby appeared to be dead, but the coroner said the baby probably had been born alive.
The coroner also said Towles’ methamphetamine use could have contributed to the baby’s death. She originally was charged with murder, but entered a plea to the lesser charge, admitting responsibility but not malice.
Towles’ attorney had asked for probation. The maximum sentence she faced was four years.
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