"Baby Jane" CHAPMAN - 16 Months - Jersey City (W of NYC) NJ

A Jersey City woman pleaded guilty today to smoking marijuana,
drinking vodka and having sex with her girlfriend while the
16-month-girl she was baby-sitting drowned in her bathtub
last year.

Emergency medical technicians were able to revive the
baby but she is now in a vegetative state, officials said.

Shanica
Dyer, 23, of Nunda Avenue, pleaded guilty to endangering the
welfare of a child, according to Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor
Steve Dill.

She faces five to seven years in
prison when sentenced July 9 by Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale,
Dill said.

"All three woman violated the trust placed in them and
now this child is condemned to a life as a vegetable because of them,"
Dill said, noting that the girlfriend and the child's mother were also
charged.

The baby's mother, 25-year-old Stacey Chapman, of the
same address, pleaded guilty May 7 to child abuse. She faces probation
when sentenced on June 25, officials said.

Dyers' girlfriend,
22-year-old Iris Rivera of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty on Monday to
endangering the welfare of a child and agreed to testify against Dyer,
Dill said.

Rivera, who met Dyers on an Internet dating site,
faces a term of supervised release, Dill said.

On June 10, Dyer
called 911 saying the baby bumped her head in the bathtub and was
underwater a few moments, Dill said. When emergency medical technicians
arrived they found the toddler unresponsive; it took 40 minutes of CPR
before the child had a pulse, the prosecutor said.

Rivera
quickly came clean and the truth began to come out, he said.

When
Chapman brought the child upstairs to Dyer's apartment she smoked pot
with the women before leaving the baby in their care, Dill said. Rivera
and Dyer then drank and smoked and Dyer admitted she left the baby in
the bathtub while she and Rivera had sex in the bedroom.

It was
only when Dyer's then-3-year-old son walked into the bedroom saying,
"Baby. Baby," that the women rushed to the tub and found the child
unresponsive, Dill said. The tub's running water had leaked through the
floor and made a puddle in Chapman's apartment below, Dill said, adding
that doctors found the victim was underwater 10 minutes.

The baby
was transferred to University Hospital in Newark and the last time
Dill's office checked, she remained on a respirator, was unresponsive
and could not see or hear due to the brain damage cause by lack of
oxygen.

The victim is now a ward of the Division of Youth and
Family services, which has started proceedings to take Dyer's son, too.