DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) _ A Florida Panhandle mother has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for felony child neglect.
Stephanie Ann Howell’s 3-year-old son Karson drowned in a backyard swimming pool on Sept. 3, 2014, at their DeFuniak Springs home.
Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells called the child’s death a “terrible tragedy.”
The Northwest Florida Daily News reports the judge noted Howell had a history of putting her children in harm’s way.
In May 2014, the child was found wandering along a highway.
And the boy almost drowned three months later.
Court records show Howell put the child, who couldn’t swim, on a float in a pool because he was “pitching a fit.”
The child slipped off the float and almost drowned that day.
