Toddler died at daycare with head wedged between nap cot and crib railing after owner placed the portable bed on top of playpen, left child in room with door shut

A California daycare proprietor and relation has been ordered to walk 3 years down bars aft a 16-month-old girl successful the woman's attraction got her caput fatally wedged betwixt a integrative cot — placed connected apical of a portable crib — and her crib's railing.

"I americium ashamed of my negligence," said Stacy Lee Snow, 54, astatine her sentencing connected Friday, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I volition not inquire for your forgiveness due to the fact that I bash not merit it," she told the victim's family.

Snow, who pleaded blameworthy successful April to involuntary manslaughter, ran an at-home daycare known arsenic Snow Angels Childcare and Preschool successful El Cajon portion the unfortunate was successful her care, according to San Diego County prosecutors and officials.

A study by the aesculapian examiner, which was obtained by the Union-Tribune and section CBS affiliate KFMB, said the unfortunate was "fussier" than accustomed and enactment into the playpen astir 10:30 a.m. connected April 8, 2025, for a nap. A screen with a mesh halfway was placed implicit the crib to forestall the small miss from climbing out, on with a integrative cot, according to constabulary and the ME's report.

Snow was accused of not paying attraction arsenic the unfortunate managed to get her caput wedged betwixt the integrative cot and a railing connected the crib. Prosecutors said the girl's parent specifically asked Snow not to fto the kid slumber astatine the daycare, and Snow was expected to beryllium checking connected her each 15 minutes arsenic required by authorities childcare licensing laws. The unfortunate was besides near successful a chamber with a closed door.

Snow recovered the miss unresponsive and removed her from the crib to execute CPR. Police and paramedics were called around 11:30 a.m. to the daycare, located astatine a residence successful the 1500 artifact of Penasco Drive successful unincorporated El Cajon.

"On arrival, aesculapian unit discovered [the victim] … connected the surviving country floor," a constabulary press release says. "Paramedics instantly began CPR and transported the kid to a section hospital, wherever tragically, the babe was pronounced deceased."

The girl's origin of decease was listed arsenic "accidental asphyxia," per the Union-Tribune. The justice overseeing Snow's lawsuit imposed the maximum condemnation allowed and blasted Snow for "intentional and negligent choices" that led to "a calamity that was perfectly and wholly avoidable."

The victim's household has filed a wrongful decease suit against Snow, according to online tribunal records viewed by Law&Crime.

Snow was sentenced to 3 years successful region jail, with her last six months of the condemnation to beryllium served connected mandatory supervision. Her daycare has been closed and she nary longer has a childcare license.

"There is not a time that goes by that I don't deliberation astir this tragic incidental and each the ways it could person been prevented had I not been truthful careless with my actions," she told the tribunal astatine her sentencing.

The victim's parent said, "I inactive cannot bring myself to battalion distant her belongings due to the fact that doing truthful feels similar losing her each implicit again."

The ma added, "I can't shingle the past clip that I said goodbye."