ANTELOPE VALLEY : Mother Gets Year in Jail in Death of Infant Girl

A 21-year-old Antelope Valley woman convicted of child abuse in the torture and drug overdose death of her 5-month-old daughter was sentenced Monday to one year in County Jail under a plea bargain in which she avoided a longer prison term.

Calling the death of Elizabeth Przybyszewski’s infant daughter the worst he has seen, Lancaster Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever initially hesitated to accept the plea bargain.

“This was a case of torture. . . . That’s torture with a capital ‘T.’ And your client is partially responsible for that,” Stoever said.

But Stoever ultimately agreed to accept the plea bargain, saying he believed that Przybyszewski was a “passive participant” in the acts that led to the infant’s death. Her sentence resolves the third of six Antelope Valley child abuse deaths that occurred during a 13-month period ending in mid-1992. Since then, authorities have confirmed a seventh case and are investigating a possible eighth.