Alabama woman pleads guilty over leaving baby in hot car: report

(Reuters) - An Alabama woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminally negligent homicide for leaving her 4-month old son in a hot car in 2013, according to local media reports. Katherine Papke, a U.S. Army sergeant first class, was charged last year with manslaughter after having left her son, Bennett Owen Smith, in his car seat for several hours as she went to work in Anniston, about 55 miles east of Birmingham, the Birmingham News newspaper reported. Papke had earlier dropped her other two children off at school, it reported. As part a plea agreement, Papke will avoid jail time, the newspaper said. Neither Calhoun County District Attorney Brian McVeigh nor Papke's attorney immediately returned messages seeking comment. (Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans; Editing by Eric Walsh)