Sweet sentenced to 10 years

Mother pleads guilty to negligence in infant son's drowning

Rachel Sweet will spend most of the next decade in prison.

Osage County Circuit Judge Gael Wood on Friday sentenced Sweet, 29, Linn, to seven years for her July 7 guilty plea to endangering the welfare of a child and three years, to be served after the first sentence is completed, for her guilty plea to an involuntary manslaughter charge.

Investigation reports said Sweet placed her 3-month-old son in a bathtub, then left him "with no supervision for an extended period of time."

Based on interviews, officials said Sweet put the baby in the tub on March 7, then fell asleep or unconscious "as a result of the ingestion of prescription medication, consumption of alcohol or (some) combination."

The boy was found face down in the water on the morning of March 8.