TRENTON GIACHETTI - 4 months - Daytona Beach FL

DAYTONA BEACH -- A mother who took prescription pain pills and fell
asleep, leaving her 4-month-old baby son to drown in a bathtub, was
sentenced to 14 years in prison Friday for her deadly mistake.
The anguish Christal Giachetti must live with was clear after she
pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors to aggravated
manslaughter of a child. As the judge spoke of her case, Giachetti's
face twisted into a grimace of regret.
"Do you wish to say anything?" Circuit Judge Patrick Kennedy asked her.
"No," Giachetti replied.
By entering into the plea deal, Giachetti, 31, waived her right to a
jury trial and avoided up to 30 years in prison if she'd been found
guilty.
In exchange, she was sentenced to 14 years in state prison followed by 10 years' probation.
Giachetti's first two years of probation will be under the strict guidelines of a drug offender, the judge told her.
Family and friends who attended the sentencing said Giachetti loved her new baby and 13-year-old son.
She was plagued with postpartum depression, her mother said.
Giachetti also had a history of abusing prescription pills that were
intended to help her recover from several recurring back injuries,
according to state records and family members.
Giachetti started taking medications after she fell from a mechanical bull and broke her back, her mother said.
She'd asked for help, but didn't get it, those closest to Giachetti
said. "We let her down," Loretta Owen said of her daughter. "The whole
family let her down."
The day Trenton Giachetti died, on April 6, 2009, deputies called to
the mobile home on Avenue H near Ormond Beach said they found a burnt
spoon that had been used to inject pain medication.
A hypodermic needle was found nearby, and the child's mother
appeared to be under the influence of drugs, slurring her words and
staggering, deputies said.
In interviews with sheriff's investigators, Giachetti said she took Dilaudin, "Roxies," Xanax and Soma.
When asked how the child drowned, Giachetti gave several different stories to deputies, according to reports.
Giachetti ultimately admitted putting the baby in the tub and
stepping away, deputies said. She said she forgot about the baby and
fell asleep.
Judge Kennedy called the case tragic when he imposed the agreed-upon
sentence. Giachetti's family insists she needs help for drug addiction
and depression. They are skeptical she'll get the help she needs in
prison.
Reggie Williams, local Department of Children & Families
administrator, said this was the first case he can recall in his four
years on the job where the abuse was "so egregious" that a parent was
prosecuted.
"When one does rise to that level and the abuse is evident, as it
was in this particular situation, they should be tried and punished for
their actions because child safety is important not only to the
department, but to the welfare of the children," Williams said.
Prosecutors said Giachetti's case was similar to a recent death in
St. Augustine, in which a father was sentenced to 12 years in prison
for leaving his 23-month-old daughter in a hot car while he slept in
his home.
Both cases revolved around the legal concept of culpable negligence.
In such cases, jurors are instructed that culpable negligence is
"consciously" doing something a person "knew or should have known" was
likely to cause death or serious injury.
An investigative report by the state Department of Children &
Families found that Giachetti's chronic and severe drug use after
Trenton's birth "affected her ability to provide safe care."
Giachetti gave up her parental rights to her other son, Kevin, now
14, after the infant's death. Kevin is now being adopted by a local
family member.
One of Giachetti's friends from the neighborhood, Lynn Sox, said she felt the punishment was too severe.
"What she needs is drug treatment and counseling," Sox said.
"She loved Trenton."