This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After spending more than a year in jail, a West Valley City mother has been freed after pleading guilty to a reduced count of negligent homicide in the death of her toddler in 2014.
The class A misdemeanor replaces 25-year-old Kim Hawkins' original charge of murder, a first-degree felony, after she was accused of smothering her 13-month-old son, Billy.
Two state medical examiners have said the child's cause of death was "undetermined," according to court documents and Hawkins' defense attorney Nick Falcone, and that the death could have come as a result of natural causes or unnatural causes.
After the original autopsy examination, prosecutors believed small marks on the child's face supported their theory of suffocation, but defense attorneys argued that the marks could have been caused by medical professionals intubating the child.
"No one knows why this child is dead," Falcone said during an October preliminary hearing that the case was one of the "most egregious prosecutions" he had seen in more than a decade as a lawyer.
But prosecutors had argued that the boy was fine on Jan. 23, 2014, until "something happened" while only Hawkins and the child were in their West Valley City apartment.
On Thursday, after Hawkins entered her plea to the amended charge, she told 3rd District Judge Royal Hansen that she had used her time in jail to earn her high school diploma.
"I accomplished something I never thought I'd accomplish, and I did it in jail," Hawkins said.
"I'm proud of you," Hansen told Hawkins, adding that he appreciated her "effort under circumstances that are less than ideal."
Hansen ordered Hawkins released from jail after crediting her with more than a year of time already served. The judge chose not to impose a fine for the misdemeanor, to which prosecutors did not object.
"I'm confident that I'm not going to see you again in court," Hansen said.
After the case was closed, Falcone said he was confident that they would have won if the trial moved forward.
"We maintain that she was innocent," added Sherry Valdez, another of Hawkins' defense attorneys, but after having lost custody of another child and having "lost more than a year of her life" in jail, the attorneys said Hawkins felt it wasn't worth it to continue fighting the case.
Twitter: @mnoblenews