An Indiana woman who called herself a “super mom” was sentenced to 14 years in prison after co-sleeping with her baby led to the child’s death.
Tricia Cavanaugh, 36, pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury on Sept. 3, eight years after her 4-month-old daughter, Celina, died.
The Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a release announcing her sentence that Cavanuagh appeared to be intoxicated, and that she had slurred speech and unsteady balance, when police responded to her home in Muncie, Ind., in June 2016 after Celina was found unconscious.
At the time, Cavanaugh told police that when she woke up, Celina was lying face down on the bed, prosecutors said. The 4-month-old died in the hospital later that morning.
According to the arresting affidavit, police found bottles of prescription drugs in Cavanaugh’s home, not all of which were prescribed.
After submitting to a drug test, Cavanaugh was found to have drugs in her system, some of which were prescribed recently, while others hadn’t been prescribed in more than a year. Prosecutors said there was evidence Cavanaugh had taken more Hydrocodone, a painkiller, than instructed in the days leading up to Celina’s death.
When Celina was born, authorities said she tested positive for opiates and was placed in the NICU for neonatal drug withdrawal, according to the affidavit.
Police also found that Cavanaugh had been warned by child services in January 2015 about the dangers of co-sleeping with her other children after the agency previously investigated her because she tested positive for drugs.
After Celina’s birth, the hospital gave her further instructions not to sleep with her baby, the affidavit states.
Cavanaugh was arrested in connection with Celina’s death in July 2017.
At her sentencing hearing, prosecutors said Cavanaugh called herself a “super mom,” to which Judge Douglas Mawhorr responded, “I am not so sure about that.”
