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Utah woman sentenced to up to 15 years for death of 2-year-old son

(Eli Lucero/Herald Journal) Heidi Rutchey talks with her lawyer David Perry in 1st District Court on Nov. 21, 2013, in Logan, Utah. Rutchey, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the death of her 2-year-old son, has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Logan • A woman accused of killing her 2-year-old son has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Heidi Rutchey was sentenced Wednesday for the death of her son Eli, who was found dead in 2013 on the bathroom floor or her River Heights home. Rutchey pleaded guilty but mentally ill.

Her attorney Dave Perry called it “unconscionable” to send someone to prison who “doesn’t know what they’re doing.” He says Rutchey is remorseful.

First District Judge Thomas Willmore recommended that Rutchey be housed in the mental health ward in prison. She has been in the state mental hospital for three years.

Rutchey told hospital staffers, court records show, that she had suffocated her son in a bathtub.