Police Investigating 10-Day-Old Found In Washer At End Of Spin Cycle

[Nell]

I don't think she should have been allowed to plead guilty if she is still trying to blame part of it on her aunt. She needs to take full responsibility for her actions that killed her child.

[Bohring]

She needs to take full responsibility for her actions that killed her child.

I completely agree.

That statement that mentions the surviving children makes me wonder if she is not going to get a long ass sentence. While I hate this case and am forever disturbed by the thought of the baby being tossed into a washer, and drowning from it, I do hope that she is completely clean, understands what she has done - even though she blames the aunt - and is - nah, I just can't forgive her yet. I still can't wrap my mind around this one. It has been a nasty reminder today. Quite a cloud over my day.

[Hellsbells]

Mom Sentenced in Baby's Washing Machine Death

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - A 27-year-old Oklahoma woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the death of her 10-day-old daughter whose body was found in a washing machine.

Lyndsey Dawn Fiddler was sentenced Wednesday in Washington County District Court after pleading guilty in August to second-degree manslaughter and child neglect in the death last November of Maggie May Trammel.

Fiddler has maintained that she doesn't know how the baby got into the washing machine and doesn't believe she put the girl there.

Fiddler will be required to serve 85 percent of her sentence -- 12 years and nine months -- before being eligible for parole

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/100...-Machine-Death

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Washington County District Judge Curtis DeLapp, following a recommendation from the District Attorney's Office, sentenced Lyndsey Dawn Fiddler, 27, to a split 30-year term on a child-neglect charge and to four years in prison on a second-degree manslaughter charge. The prison sentences will run concurrently.

The split term calls for 15 years to be served in prison followed by a 15-year probation.
[...]

"Good luck, Ms. Fiddler," DeLapp said to the defendant, who also was fined $1,500 and ordered to undergo substance-abuse counseling and register as a violent offender.

A few supporters gathered in the courtroom and followed Fiddler down the hall to the elevator as she made the trip back to the jail where she has been held since November. Fiddler requested that she be sent to prison as soon as possible.
[...]

According to a presentencing investigation report, Fiddler said she is guilty of child neglect because of her drug use, but she does not believe that she put the infant in the washing machine.
[...]

District Attorney Kevin Buchanan initially charged Fiddler with first-degree murder but amended the charge in August, saying the "evidence does not indicate the defendant intentionally killed her child."

Fiddler's two other children, ages 6 and 9, now live with a relative.

Buchanan indicated that the length of the recommended sentence was intended to ensure that they would be adults by the time she is released from prison.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...1_CUTLIN551359

"I know everybody has slammed me and I deserve some slamming for taking care of my children while on drugs but I know I would not hurt my children, I never have. It's all so bad and everyone has spent so much time putting me down," she says, in the report. "It sucks being me. Everyone has made it out like I'm a monster."

She further contended that drugs were at fault in the child's death.

"If I would have been sober I could have protected my daughter. I wish I could have prevented this. If I could change it I would. I know I did not put my daughter in the washing machine, I took care of her no matter what I did drug-wise. She was perfect, even though there were problems with the pregnancy. It was hard labor but worth it."

In the statement, Fiddler says the child's aunt had been "taking morphine and soma" at the time of the death.

"I know I'm not the one who put my baby in that washing machine, but I can't prove that I did or didn't," Fiddler says.

Fiddler also admitted to taking "five lortabs and three somas."

According to the pre-sentence investigation summary, officials say that "during the commission of the crime, the defendant had several drugs in her system including methamphetamine."

The summary also notes that Fiddler "states her aunt was an abuser of drugs and had mental issues, indicating she believes her aunt is responsible for putting the baby in the washing machine."

http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/a...ersentence.txt

[Darsa]

"It sucks being me. Everyone has made it out like I'm a monster."

She further contended that drugs were at fault in the child's death.

AWww, poor baby, it sucks to be you. Maybe you should sue the drug company that makes the stuff you were taking, eh? THAT would really place the blame where it belongs. Hell, you should see if you can bring them up on murder charges!!!

... god, this woman makes me so sick and angry...

[Dakota Valkyrie]

After the sentencing and Fiddler had been lead away from the courtroom, 2News spoke with Washington County District Attorney Kevin Buchanan about the case and asked what he would say to those who say 15 years for the death of a 10-day-old is not enough.

“I understand their outrage. This is shocking case,” he said, giving an explanation of the challenges in case — challenges that lead to his office's recommendation for sentencing.

The most significant challenge, he said, was the blood sample taken from Fiddler at the outset of the investigation, shortly after the discovery of the newborn baby's body in the washing machine on Nov. 4, 2010.

“There was not enough blood collected at the time from Ms. Fiddler to fully test the substances in her blood,” said Buchanan. “We had other substances to test that we can confirm methamphetamine in her system, but we were never going to be able to show how much of what other types of drugs, so that presented some problems.”

The other issue was there were two people in that upstairs apartment when the baby was found — Fiddler and her aunt, Rhonda Coshatt. Test samples from both individuals showed both had drugs in their systems — Fiddler with meth, amphetamines, benzodiazepine and opiates, and Coshatt with hydrocodone.

“So of course we knew there were going to be some questions as to proving who actually put Maggie Mae in the washing machine,” said Buchanan.

“Primarily, I think what people are having trouble differentiating is that Ms. Fiddler and everyone concerned with this case — the detectives, police officers and everybody at the scene — no one believes that Ms. Fiddler did this on purpose, meaning, placing Maggie Mae in the washing machine.

“We know that she took the drugs. We know she rendered herself intoxicated with those drugs and that was totally inappropriate, but that she intended specifically for Maggie Mae's life to end, we don't believe that — and for that reason that's why we think that 15 years is appropriate.”

He said his prosecution team earlier had pushed for the stronger charge of first degree murder — a charge that stuck through the preliminary hearing. However, upon looking at Oklahoma case law, specifically a 2007 Oklahoma City case where the Court of Criminal Appeals had reversed a second-degree murder charge and upheld only a child neglect conviction due to similar issues, the team was no longer comfortable or confident the first degree murder conviction would stand in Court of Criminal Appeals.

“And we certainly don't want to do this twice just to feed our own egos or satisfy the anger of the public,” said Buchanan. “What we needed to do was to do what we think will stand, give the family that is left in the aftermath here some finality in this case and not have to worry about whether Ms. Fiddler is going to have a conviction overturned and they're going to have to deal with custody issues have to deal with custody issues and that type of thing in the future.”

Standing in a courtroom in the Washington County Courthouse, Buchanan told 2News the Fiddler case, has been one of the most difficult cases of his career.

“I think factually and emotionally this is one of the toughest ones just because it's a 10-day-old baby who died in such a — it's just a tragic story for everybody involved.

“But this also was a very difficult legal case from the stand point of what to charge her with that would actually be successful,” Buchanan continued, talking about the case's challenges and going from pressing a first degree murder charge to the charges of second degree manslaughter and child abuse by neglect.

“I recognize that this is a case where she did not set out intentionally to kill or take another life and 15 years doesn't sound like a long time, but it's an 85 percent crime and she's going to spend some time in prison with time to reflect what she did to Maggie May.”

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/bartlesville...27s-sentencing