This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City mother was charged with child abuse homicide on Wednesday for the February death of her 10-year-old son.
On Feb. 20, April Ann Baker, 31, left her son Braedon Baker unattended in the bathtub where he drowned, police reports state. Braedon had been diagnosed with epilepsy in 2009 and was prone to seizure attacks at the time of the incident.
Baker admitted that she was warned by doctors not to leave Braedon alone in the bath and that she lapsed in giving her son his anti-seizure medication.
The 10-year-old was alone in the bathroom with the door closed while his mother and uncle prepared dinner.
She said she heard a "tapping" noise coming from the bathroom 15 minutes into her son's bath, police records state. The tapping lasted about a minute and then stopped, she told police.
Five minutes later, Baker's brother went to check on Braedon because "he felt Braedon should have been out of the bath." He found the boy underwater and "blue."
The boy's drug treatment was below the proper dosage level to treat his epilepsy, according to court records.
Medical examiners estimated he went approximately four days without his anti-seizure medication.
Twitter @ginabarker