Toni Anette Medrano is being charged with manslaughter after waking up from her drunken slumber to find her newborn dead. Â According to reports she drank a fifth of vodka before she got home and laid down. Â She woke up to try and feed her baby, when she found him motionless. Â Hit the jump to read the details and how many years she faces and what her alcohol alcohol level was.
Steph Bassanini
A Minnesota mother killed her baby boy after passing out drunk and rolling over him, police said.
Toni Annette Medrano was charged this week with manslaughter in the death of her newborn son Adrian.
The 29-year-old allegedly arrived home to her Cottage Grove house on November 21, having drank an entire fifth of vodka.
She fell asleep on the couch with the boy between her and the back cushions.
Throughout the course of the night she woke to feed the three-week-old, leaving the couch to get formula at around 3am.
She then drifted in and out of sleep, without getting up again, as her other children got ready for school, Pioneer Press reported.Â
At 10.30am she realised that Adrian was cold and purple and screamed to her husband Jason: ‘the baby is dead’.
Mr Medrano had warned his drunken wife that she risked suffocating the infant if she slept with him on the couch, according to the Star Tribune.
The pair called 911 and tried to revive their baby but it was too late. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury.Â
The official cause of death was ruled ‘asphyxia due to being laid upon while sleeping with an adult’ by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s office.
Medrano was tested and found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.11.
She faces two counts of second-degree manslaughter, one charge for ‘culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk’ and a second for ‘committing or attempting to commit a violation’.
If Medrano is convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said: ‘Irrespective of the ultimate outcome in this matter, I hope that valuable lessons can be learned from these very tragic circumstances.’
