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Weld County Mom Sentenced To 10 Years In Facebook Drowning Case


GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4)- The woman who told police she was on Facebook when her son drowned in a bathtub was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday.

Shannon Johnson, 34, pleaded guilty to child abuse, negligently causing death, on March 11. She was originally charged with child abuse, knowingly or recklessly causing death, which would have required a mantatory prison sentence of 16-48 years.

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Shannon Johnson (credit: Weld County Jail)

The lesser charge she pleaded guilty to has a sentencing range of four to 12 years in prison. It also had the option for probation.

Weld County Judge Thomas Quammen handed down the sentence at about noon Wednesday. The attorneys left the sentence up to the judge, as a sentencing agreement was not part of the plea deal. In addition to 10 years in prison, Johnson was also sentenced to five years mandatory parole.

Her family told the judge Johnson shouldn't go to prison because she's already in a prison of grief.

"She made a horrible, terrible mistake. She will live with that the rest of her life. She did not do it intentionally. She made a wrong choice," said Johnson's mother, Betty, in court.

"My sister doesn't think the exact way I do or the way everybody else does," said Johnson's sister Keely.

Johnson's sister said despite warnings not to leave 13-month-old Joseph alone in the tub, Shannon has the mind and judgement of a young teenager.

"That never entered her mind. I don't believe that she ever thought that anything could ever happen to him," said Keely.

Johnson's father said he worried so much about Shannon's ability to be a mother that he considered kidnapping the baby.

"We were deciding whether to take the baby back to Atlanta without anybody knowing it. Ask me now if id' do that if I had a second chance, absolutely I would," said Johnson's father.

In court, Shannon wept, telling the judge, "I know I made a huge mistake leaving him unattended and I will always hate myself. I'm horribly sorry for this decision because I now don't have my son."

The judge said it's not about the sadness of the adults in Joseph's short life.

"You may have lost your son…Joseph lost his life, and your loss pales in comparison to Joseph's loss…He was a human being who had a right to live and you as his mother had a responsibility to help him live," said Judge Quammen.

Johnson left Joseph alone in the bathtub at their home in Fort Lupton in September 2010.

Johnson told investigators her son was unusually independent and wanted to be alone, so she was on Facebook in the other room to play a game and check in with friends.

Seven minutes later she checked and Joseph was fine. Three minutes after that, Johnson said she checked again and found the toddler's head under water.

Related Stories: Shannon Johnson Story Archive

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