JAMES MANYWHITEHORSES - 2 yo - Great Falls MT

A woman who hid the body of her 2-year-old son in the trunk of her
car for most of last summer was sentenced Wednesday to 55 years in
prison.
Summer ManyWhiteHorses, 32, had pleaded guilty in June to negligent
homicide and evidence tampering in the death of James ManyWhiteHorses.
Social workers began looking for the toddler in July 2008, when
ManyWhiteHorses was arrested and charged with drunken driving after she
crashed her car. The vehicle was towed, but police did not search the
trunk, and ManyWhiteHorses didn't retrieve the car even after she got
out of jail and was free to do so, authorities said.
Welfare officials filed a missing person's
report Sept. 4. The next day, police contacted ManyWhiteHorses, who
told them her son's remains were in the trunk.
Autopsy results showed the boy suffered a fracture to the head and other injuries.
ManyWhiteHorses told detectives that her son fell from a high chair
on the night of May 28 while she was watching television in another
room. She said she thought her son was alive after the fall and laid
him down next to her on the couch. But the next morning he wasn't
breathing.
She said she eventually wrapped her son's body in a blanket and placed it in her car trunk.
Prosecutors said ManyWhiteHorses drove around the state with her
11-year-old daughter for nearly two months, paying for food, gas, hotel
rooms and alcohol with government checks meant to help take care of the
boy, who was autistic.

Summer Many White Horses will spend up to 55 years in prison for failing to get help as her
2-year-old son was dying and hiding his body in the trunk of her car.
But just how the boy died may forever remain a mystery.Judge Julie Macek sentenced Many White Horses, 32, in Cascade County District Court after a two-hour hearing Wednesday.Macek
handed down a 40-year prison sentence for the first charge, negligent
homicide, and 15 years for the second charge, tampering with evidence.
Many White Horses must serve a quarter of that sentence before she is
eligible for parole.Normally,
the maximum total sentence on the charges would be 30 years in prison,
but Many White Horses had another felony conviction in the past five
years, making her eligible for a much longer sentence.Macek also ordered that any money Many White Horses earns in prison must go toward the $2,800 cost of her son's headstone.The sentence nearly split the prosecuting and defense attorneys' requests.Cascade County Attorney John Parker asked for a 100-year prison sentence, the maximum."This is severe, extreme, egregious negligence," Parker said. "This is a case about a boy who didn't have to die."Defense attorney Larry LaFountain wanted a 20-year sentence, with half of that term suspended.That
would be near the average sentence for people convicted of negligent
homicide, he said, and his client shouldn't get extra time because this
case got a lot of public attention."This case has become an emotional spectacle from the outset," he said.ManyWhite Horses was arrested in September 2008 after she admitted to
police that the body of her son, James "Hymie" Many White Horses, was
in the trunk of her car. Police and social workers had been looking for
the boy since the court revoked Many White Horses' custody of her
children the previous month, following her arrest for drunken driving.Prosecutors
originally charged Many White Horses with murder, even though an
autopsy of the badly decomposed body failed to determine a cause of
death. She told police her son died after falling from a high chair.
She was set to go to trial on the murder charge in June but reached a plea
agreement with prosecutors at the last minute. She agreed to plead
guilty to negligent homicide and tampering with evidence instead of
standing trial for murder. The
negligent homicide charge was based on her failure to summon help when
she knew something was wrong with James. The tampering with evidence
charge stemmed from her hiding the body in the trunk. Investigators
believe it stayed there all summer, even as Many White Horses drove
around western Montana with her 11-year-old daughter — keeping the
windows down to lessen the smell of decomposition.James
was autistic, and his mother got Social Security checks because of his
condition. She continued cashing those checks for months after James'
death."It's one of the most shocking (cases) we've had in our county in the last decade," Parker said in Wednesday's hearing.In
the sentencing, prosecutors focused on indications that Many White
Horses routinely abused James. It's a drum they beat throughout the
many pre-trial hearings as they tried to make the case that the
toddler's death wasn't the result of an isolated incident.A
child abuse expert testified in the sentencing by telephone from
Colorado, opining that injuries found in the autopsy suggested child
abuse and neglect. Parker also referred to statements by Many White
Horses' friends and family, who said they'd seen her beat the child.LaFountain
said that sort of argument didn't belong in the sentencing hearing,
since Many White Horses was not being sentenced for abusing or killing
her son, only for failing to get him help."The
negligent homicide was one of omission, but we have to fight this
emotional pull of abuse, abuse, abuse," he told the judge.But
Parker said the indications of abuse spoke to the defendant's character
and were an important consideration even in sentencing on other charges."We're
asking the court to bear witness to the cruel, inhumane treatment that
has been inflicted on a child before he died," Parker said.
Parker said prosecutors believe she hid the body so investigators wouldn't find signs of abuse.He
also addressed the impact the crimes had on Many White Horses'
surviving daughter, who had to help her mother look for a place to bury
the toddler's remains.Aggravating factorsThe inability to determine a cause of death complicated the case, Macek said."The fact of the matter is, this is a suspicious death," she said. "However,
the court also cannot jump to a conclusion, nor is the defendant
charged with any intentional act causing death."She
said a 100-year sentence was too far out of line with other negligent
homicide cases, and more than many murder sentences. But she said
factors in this case did merit a long prison term."When
this child was in severe distress, she did not call an ambulance,"
Macek said. "She essentially put him to bed and let him suffer through
the night, until he expired in the morning."Macek also said a long sentence was appropriate because of Many White Horses' criminal record, which includes five felonies.ReactionsAlthough the sentence was less than prosecutors requested, Parker said it should be enough."Hopefully, with this sentence she'll never be able to touch another child again," he said. "That was the goal."Relatives
of Many White Horses who came from Washington to attend the sentencing
said they were disappointed with the lengthy sentence.Leona
and Ernestine Gopher, Many White Horses' aunts, said the state of
Montana is partly responsible because social services gave Many White
Horses custody of her children even after she proved she couldn't
properly care for them.LaFountain declined to comment, and Many White Horses showed virtually no emotion throughout the sentencing.