Southern Illinois woman sentenced to prison for 3-year-old stepson’s brain bleed death

A 34-year-old Carlinville woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for her toddler stepson’s death.

A Macoupin County Sheriff’s Department investigation determined Ashley Bottoms threw 3-year-old Hunter Drew into a half-wall on Oct. 20 when she was trying to break up a fight between two children. Authorities believe Hunter’s head hit the ledge of the wall, which caused a brain bleed from the blunt force trauma, according to charging documents in Macoupin County.

Hunter was found dead in the car later that day after Bottoms had been running errands for over three hours, Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison said.

Bottoms pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter of a family member at an April hearing. Macoupin County Judge Joshua Meyer handed down the sentence Monday morning at the county courthouse in Carlinville.

Involuntary manslaughter is an accusation that a person unintentionally killed someone. It is classified as a Class 2 felony when it involves family or household members.

The charge carried a possible sentence of three to 14 years in prison.

Bottoms had also been charged with endangering the life of a child causing death for not taking Hunter to the hospital for his head injury. The endangerment charge was dismissed in April because of a state rule known as the one-act, one-crime doctrine, which states that a person can only be convicted of one crime for the same physical act, according to Garrison.

What investigators learned about incident

Lt. Ryan Dixon, of the Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office, testified about the criminal investigation during Monday’s sentencing hearing.

He said an autopsy indicated that Hunter likely died within minutes of the injury, which occurred sometime before lunch. Afterward, Bottoms took Hunter and her other children to a local hospital for an appointment she had. The children waited in the car, according to Dixon. He said Bottoms told investigators they were asleep.

They also drove to Walmart and Casey’s General Store before going to Litchfield to drop the children off with Hunter’s dad so Bottoms could go to work.

Bottoms’ mother Vicky Nichols and aunt Patty Moore also testified Monday as character witnesses. They said Bottoms took good care of the children and described problems with the siblings arguing and fighting as well as lax discipline in the home, which made them difficult to handle.

Bottoms didn’t get much help in the household, they said.

Hunter’s maternal uncle Kiel Quigley and paternal aunt Melissa Miller read victim impact statements on behalf of their families. They questioned why Bottoms didn’t get help for Hunter after he hit his head. The defense didn’t offer an explanation.

“Every night when you go to bed, Ashley, and every morning when you wake up, I want you to see him and think about how you could have changed his fate that day,” Miller said during the hearing, addressing Bottoms directly in the courtroom.

Child protective services involvement

Child protective services had been involved with the family prior to Hunter’s death. The state agency placed Hunter in his dad’s and stepmom’s care in August.

When Hunter died on Oct. 20, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was investigating Bottoms for a report it received six days earlier, on Oct. 14, alleging Hunter had physical injuries, according to a timeline the agency provided of its involvement.

Bottoms told child protective services that Hunter hurt himself while roughhousing and playing, according to Jassen Strokosch, the chief of staff for the agency. Strokosch said a doctor examined Hunter and told the agency the injuries were potentially consistent with roughhousing.

The agency made an official determination known as an “indicated” report that it believed Bottoms neglected Hunter because she could have prevented those injuries, according to Strokosch. He added that the investigation was ongoing when Hunter died.

Strokosch said the child protective services investigator in the case decided that removing Hunter from the home was not appropriate based on the evidence of injuries and the doctor’s evaluation of them.

To take a child into protective custody, the Department of Children and Family Services has to prove to a judge that there is an urgent and immediate risk of harm.

“We simply did not have that standard in this case,” Strokosch said.

Foster parents want justice for child who died after IL DCFS removed him from their care

The agency’s policy is to keep children at home whenever possible, with support to address any safety threats or risk factors, because removing children from their home can be a traumatic experience.

Before Hunter was placed in his dad’s and stepmom’s care, child protective services completed a service plan and home safety checklist, according to an agency spokesperson. Then, Montgomery County Judge Marc Kelly issued an order granting custody to the father, which closed the case.

A service plan includes an assessment of possible risks and any services the family might need. Possible risks could include previous child protective services investigations finding evidence a child was abused or neglected in their care or a criminal history.

A home safety checklist evaluates the house for things like a working smoke detector and makes sure parents can recognize the signs of illness and know the ways children could hurt themselves in a home, like choking on buttons or coins and falling off changing tables if left alone.

After the judge granted custody, the Department of Children and Family Services remained involved with the family. A change in the law two years ago now requires the agency to keep in touch with families for six months after a child is placed in their care or returned to their care to make sure they’re getting any services they might need to keep the child safe.

The agency later made a determination that Bottoms abused Hunter in an investigation related to his death.

Strokosch said the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has evaluated its involvement with the family and found no missteps.

“Investigators have incredibly difficult jobs,” he said. “They have to make decisions about the evidence in front of them. This case is a good example of where they made good decisions based on the evidence they had, then an adult made a very poor decision and it resulted in the death of a child. There isn’t evidence that we should have made a different decision in this case.”

Sentencing arguments from prosecution, defense

The prosecution didn’t mention the child protective services investigation during Bottoms’ sentencing hearing.

Garrison instead asked the judge to consider a misdemeanor child endangerment charge against Bottoms from 2011 in Macon County that was dismissed after she successfully completed court supervision. Garrison also wanted the judge to deliver a sentence necessary to deter others from committing the same crime.

He emphasized that Bottoms didn’t try to get help for Hunter. “Mrs. Bottoms didn’t call for help,” he said. “There’s no 911 call. There’s no run to the neighbor. Nothing.”

The prosecution asked for a sentence between 10 and 14 years. The defense sought a sentence between three and five years.

Public defender Anne Clough, who represented Bottoms, wanted the judge to understand the “chaos” in the home at the time of Hunter’s death. Clough said Bottoms cared for five young and rambunctious children on her own during the day and worked night shifts at Walmart. Moore testified that Bottoms would call her crying and that she noticed her niece was losing weight, which worried her.

“She was under stress. She didn’t want this to happen,” Clough said during the hearing. She emphasized that investigators found no evidence that it was intentional.

Bottoms will receive credit for nearly a year, 270 days, she has served in jail since her arrest. She has a right to appeal the conviction or challenge the sentence within 30 days.