Local News in Brief : No Contest Is Plea in Accidental Child Death
A woman who went out for fast food and returned to find her 18-month-old daughter unconscious in the bathtub pleaded no contest in Van Nuys Superior Court on Tuesday to felony child endangerment.
The mother, Laura Marie Andrews, 22, of Van Nuys could be sentenced to up to six years in prison for the June 8 incident that took the life of Rejel Treyon Cook.
However, the maximum sentence is unlikely, Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew W. Diamond said, calling the child’s death a “really tragic instance.”
Diamond said Andrews, an unemployed mother of three who was estranged from her husband, left Rejel in the care of her 4-year-old son while she went to a nearby fast-food restaurant. She was gone about 15 minutes and found the child floating face down in the bathtub when she returned, he said.
Andrews tried to revive the child with cardiopulmonary resuscitation and then dialed 911, asking for paramedics, Diamond said. The child died at the hospital.
Diamond said there was no family history of child abuse but that Andrews’ two other children were removed from her home after the accident and placed in the custody of the state Social Services Department.
Andrews will be sentenced Oct. 16 by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler.
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