JOHNSON COUNTY

Trafalgar mom gets 55 years in son’s drowning

Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

A Johnson County judge today sentenced a Trafalgar woman to 55 years in prison in the drowning death of her 3-year-old son.

Amanda Smith, 35, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the February 2012 murder of her son Jacob.

Johnson Superior Court Judge Cynthia Emkes accepted a plea agreement that called for Smith to serve 55 years in the Department of Correction, cutting off what was lining up to be a lengthy and drawn-out criminal trial.

Jacob was in foster care but had been on a court-ordered overnight visit with Smith when she drowned him in a bathtub in a Trafalgar apartment.

In court today, Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said, Smith told the judge that she believed God was in control and directed her to kill her son.

Experts have told the court that Smith is schizophrenic; her attorneys had been preparing an insanity defense, which could have sent her to a state mental hospital instead of prison.

The guilty but mentally ill conviction means Smith will receive treatment in prison, Cooper said.

Contacted by phone, Smith’s defense attorney Carrie Miles said her client asked her to make no public comment on the case.

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.