Ashlynn Swenson-Marshall (Minnehaha County Jail)
A 20-year-old mother in South Dakota is facing up to a decade behind bars for letting her 2-month-old baby drown after she left the infant in the bath unattended for nearly 10 minutes earlier this year.
Ashlynn Swenson-Marshall appeared in Minnehaha District Court last week where she formally pleaded guilty to one count of felony second-degree manslaughter for the "reckless killing" of her child, according to a report from the Mitchell Republic.
Officers with the Sioux Falls Police Department and Sioux Falls Fire Rescue personnel on July 20, 2023, responded to a call at a residence located in the 3600 block of North Career Avenue in regards to an infant in cardiac arrest, the newspaper previously reported. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders reportedly found Swenson-Marshall "visibly shaking, crying, and breathing at a rapid pace."
The victim — identified in court documents as L.W. — was located in the bathroom of the home and immediately transported via ambulance to a local hospital for medical treatment. Unfortunately, the infant was taken off life support after three days and was pronounced dead. A subsequent autopsy reportedly determined that L.W.'s cause of death was anoxic brain injury due to drowning.
In her initial interview with police, Swenson-Marshall reportedly said that she was bathing the victim and her other child at the same time. She claimed she turned her attention to the other child momentarily, allowing L.W. to go underwater for up to 10 seconds. Her sister-in-law then entered the bathroom and began performing CPR on the victim while she contacted authorities.
However, as investigators continued looking into the circumstances of L.W.'s death, they found that Swenson-Marshall's story did not add up. Particularly, when compared with her 15-year-old brother-in-law's statements about what happened on the night of the infant's death.
The 15-year-old reportedly told investigators that he was having an issue with his pay stub when Swenson-Marshall came out of the bathroom and assisted him with the issue in the living room. Based on the time stamp of emails exchanged during that time, it became clear that Swenson-Marshall had left the victim and her other child in the bathtub unattended for about seven to 10 minutes.
In follow-up interviews, Swenson-Marshall eventually conceded that she left her children unattended while helping her brother-in-law in the living room "for a couple of minutes," but said it was "maybe about two minutes" and not seven minutes, per the Mitchell Republic.
Detectives wrapped up their investigation after about one month and charged Swenson-Marshall with manslaughter as well as cruelty to a minor. The latter charge was dropped in exchange for her agreeing to plead guilty to manslaughter.
A date for Swenson-Marshall's sentencing hearing has not yet been set. Under South Dakota law, she is facing a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in a state correctional facility as well as a fine of up to $20,000.
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