A drunk Maryland woman who passed out while breastfeeding and smothered her baby, was sentenced June 3.
22-year-old Yadina Morales was handed down 15 months in jail for killing her two-month-old daughter, Marilynn in November.
Morales pled no contest to involuntary manslaughter, and expressed regret for her actions.
"I never, ever meant for any of this to happen," she told Washington County Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long.
She also said that she "wakes up every day wishing she had died instead," according to the Associated Press.
Morales was drinking at her home in Hagerstown with Marilyn's father, Dwayne Bryant, on the night of the incident. Bryant said that when he left, Morales was breastfeeding the baby on the couch, and Marilyn was lying between her mother and the back cushion. When he returned home, Morales was lying on top of the unresponsive baby.
Twelve hours later, Morales' blood alcohol content was 0.256—more than three times the legal driving limit.
The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be "overlay," or an accidental smothering of a baby when a person lies over or against them. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, asphyxiation is the leading cause of injury death in infants.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development states that sleeping on a couch, even alone, is not a "safe sleep environment" for infants.
"Baby should not sleep in an adult bed, on a couch, or on a chair alone, with you, or with anyone else," the website says.
Assistant State Attorney Brett Wilson called Morales irresponsible in court, and said the death "could have been avoided with the simplest, most basic understanding of duty," according to AP.
