Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Shannon Johnson, of Weld County, Colorado, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 5 years mandatory parole in relation to the drowning of her 13-month-old son. Johnson, 34, pleaded guilty to child abuse causing death in March 2010. She admitted to police she was on the popular social networking website Facebook playing Cafe World, checking on the status of friends and sharing videos while her son was taking a bath. Johnson told police she had checked on her son once in a 10 minute period. After about 3 more minutes passed, she no longer heard her son playing in the bathtub. When she went to check on him a second time Johnson found her son sideways with his face in the water. The toddler was transported by ambulance to a nearby fire station and then airlifted to Children’s hospital where he was pronounced dead. The toddler had also had a seizure at his grandmother’s house one month prior to the his drowning. Johnson was given anti-seizure medication to give to the her son in the event he had a seizure. The investigation was stalled pending the results of the toddler’s autopsy, which revealed the cause of death to be anoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest and drowning. Johnson’s mother told investigators she warned her daughter about the dangers of leaving a child unattended in a bathtub just days before he drowned. For more read Mother sentenced to 10 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to child abuse causing death, admitted to police she was on Facebook while child drown in bathtub.