Inset: Autumn G. Woods (Nelson County Sheriff's Office). Background: The home where Woods allegedly abused her 6-week-old son to death in 2024 (WSET).
A Virginia mother will spend years behind bars in the death of her 6-week-old son, who was suffocated and abused to death in 2024.
A Nelson County judge on Friday ordered Autumn Grace Woods to serve 10 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to one count each of voluntary manslaughter and felony child abuse in the slaying of Cyrus James Garfield.
However, the court suspended six years and six months from Woods' sentence, meaning she will only serve about three and a half years before her release, according to a report from Charlottesville Fox and CBS affiliate WCAV.
Woods had initially been charged with second-degree murder, but pleaded to the reduced charge after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
The child's father, Ethan Garfield, is similarly facing murder and child abuse charges.
The case stems from a Dec. 10, 2024, emergency call from a home on Taylors Creek Road in Afton.
Deputies with the Nelson County Sheriff's Office and emergency medical personnel responded to reports of an unresponsive infant at the home, the agency said in a news release. Upon arriving, first responders performed CPR on the victim for several minutes before rushing him to the University of Virginia Medical Center for treatment.
The baby died four days later, on Dec. 14, and an autopsy was conducted by the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. When the results were finalized in March 2025, medical experts determined the infant's injuries were "consistent with child abuse," prompting investigators to obtain arrest warrants for Woods and the child's father in May 2025.
Woods formally pleaded guilty to the reduced charges in February 2026. During her plea hearing, prosecutors told the court that when responding officers first found the baby, he was "blue" with blood coming from his mouth, according to a report from Lynchburg ABC affiliate WSET.
Woods reportedly told authorities she had been sleeping with the infant on a couch before the child's father returned home from work, picked up the baby, and went to sleep with him on another couch. When the couple later woke up, the child was not breathing and they called 911.
Prosecutors said the cause of death was suffocation and noted the infant had multiple broken ribs that predated his death, underscoring evidence of ongoing abuse.
Attorneys on both sides reportedly acknowledged they may never know exactly what happened in the moments leading to the child's death.
The child's father is currently scheduled to appear in court on Monday for a plea hearing.
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