http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0223az-momcharged23-ON.html

Yuma woman who argued while son drowned gets 3 years

Associated Press Feb. 23, 2006 02:22 PM

YUMA - A Yuma woman whose son drowned in a lake while she argued with her boyfriend about drugs has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Michelle Marie Nunez-Fields pleaded guilty to negligent homicide charges in the Oct. 10 death of her son, 5-year-old Jacob Andrew Nunez. The young boy was fishing at a lake north of Yuma when he fell in and drowned.

Prosecutors said Nunez-Fields was inside a trailer arguing with her boyfriend and his friend about "wanting to get high" when the boy drowned.

She went looking for him about 15 minutes later. The boy's body was eventually found floating in the water 30 to 50 yards from the shoreline, just north of the main boat ramp at Mittry Lake, by two fisherman who joined in the search, according to court records.

Prosecutor John Tate said he was pleased with the sentence, adding that the case was about more than just ordinary negligence or a parent's lack of attention to a child.

"The reason this child is dead is because the defendant was engaged in an argument over the use of drugs," Tate said. "It was the appropriate sentence."