Johnson Sentenced To 10 Years For Playing On Facebook While Son Drowned

Johnson Sentenced To 10 Years For Playing On Facebook While Son Drowned




GREELEY, Colo. -- A northern Colorado woman who was playing a game on Facebook while her 13-month-old baby drowned in a bathtub was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Shannon Johnson, 34, of Fort Lupton was also sentenced to five years of mandatory parole following her prison term.

The Greeley Tribune reported that Johnson cried as District Judge Thomas Quammen told her he didn't think she was a bad person or that she killed her son on purpose. That doesn't mean what she did wasn't criminal, he added.

Johnson was charged with child abuse that knowingly or recklessly caused death. She pleaded guilty to negligent child abuse in March.

The charges made her eligible for community corrections or probation, but authorities rejected both, saying they didn't want to play down the seriousness of her crime.

Johnson said she found her son, Joseph, sideways and face-down in a bathtub last September. She told investigators she had been playing the game Cafe World and sharing videos on Facebook in another room while her son was alone in a bathtub full of water.

Johnson called 911 to say Joseph wasn't breathing. Paramedics were able to revive the toddler but he was pronounced dead at a Denver hospital.

Johnson said her son was independent and wanted to be alone in the tub.

Tony Marino wrote:13 months and he was independent? She deserves what she got.

TSJFan4Ever wrote:I really can't feel sorry for this woman. How can she be stupid enough to leave a baby in the tub alone. Heck - when we bathed my niece during spring break, one of us got ito the tub with her because the tub had those sliding doors and was the bathroom was pretty cramped. You couldn't easily sit on the edge and the bathroom was too tiny to really move. Id was easiest for one of us to just throw on a bathing suit and hop in the tub with her, and she'd have been the same age as this baby.