Woman sentenced in daughter’s drowning

UPDATE@5:40 p.m.:

On the second anniversary of her 22-month-old daughter’s death, a West Carrollton mother was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for manslaughter.

Tara Seidel, 36, was passed out with cocaine, heroin, THC and multiple prescription drugs in her system when Rylee Seidel Jacobs was found face down in the Villa South Gardens Condominiums’ swimming pool on Aug. 1, 2013. Jacobs died five days later.

Seidel, who dabbed her eyes with tissues during Thursday’s sentencing, earned 620 days of jail-time credit, so she’ll likely be released from prison in late 2018 and then face five years’ of post-release control.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Krumholtz read from a letter he received from Seidel in which he quoted her as saying, “The closest I’ll ever get to Rylee will be taking flowers to her grave.”

Assistant prosecutor Lynda Dodd argued for the top end of the 3- to 11-year sentencing range for Seidel.

“We’re very pleased that she will be unable to hurt anybody for the next five years,” Dodd said. “This is her fourth felony. She had numerous — more than a dozen misdemeanor conviction — since 2006.

“Based upon her total history and her complete inattention to this child that she was supposed to care for and love, justified a high sentence in this case.”

Seidel, who already had given up legal custody of Jacobs to a friend who took another child to an apartment to use the restroom on that day, trespassed into the pool area without child safety devices. Two weeks earlier, prosecutors said, Seidel was removed from a public pool for leaving a toddler unattended while being passed out.

“There’s a thought that drug abuse, drug addiction is a victim-less crime,” Dodd said. “But it certainly is not a victim-less crime.”

Seidel has relinquished custody of her other child, who is to be adopted by another family, according to court documents.

Defense attorney Anthony Cicero wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Seidel was born to drug-addicted parents who left her at the hospital after her birth before she was retrieved by her grandparents. Seidel then spent time in local psychiatric facilities, was diagnosed as bi-polar, but was able to obtain a nursing degree even while battling addiction to legal and illegal drugs, her attorney wrote.

Cicero also wrote that Seidel “has been beaten and tormented in jail due to the nature of her charges” and that “she knows that many people feel that she deserves it.”

During Thursday’s hearing, Cicero said Seidel is incredibly distraught and has accepted responsibility.

“She will have to deal with it for the rest of her life,” said Cicero, who argued for a four-year sentence in his memo. “It will not be easy. She will be sort of in a prison in her own mind.”

Krumholtz quoted from a letter from Jacobs’ father, who wrote: “Please make this about justice, not revenge. Ry loved her mother more than anyone.”

UPDATE @ 11:15 a.m.:

Prosecutor Heck released a statement about the Seidel case: “Parents have a responsibility to care for and protect their children. An incident such as this shows that illegal drug abuse is not a victimless crime. This defendant, while high on illegal drugs, failed to care for her daughter at a swimming pool, and resulted in the child’s death. This is another incident where an innocent victim was affected, tragically deadly, by a drug addict’s conduct.”

UPDATE @ 9:30 a.m.:

In court this morning, Tara Seidel, 36, was sentenced to five years in prison.

FIRST REPORT:

A West Carrollton mom is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and endangering children for the drowning death of her 22-month-old daughter in August, 2013.

Tara Seidel entered a no contest plea Tuesday to the charges connected to Rylee Seidel Jacobs death.

August 1, 2013, Rylee was found by witnesses floating face down in the pool of the Villa South Gardens Condominium complex in West Carrollton. She was taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital and placed on life-support.

The child died August 6, 2013.

The girl’s mother, Tara Seidel, was found passed out at the pool, with illegal drugs in her system, according to Montgomery County prosecutors.

Prosecutor Mathias Heck said, “parents have a responsibility to care for and protect their children. This defendant, while high on illegal drugs, failed to supervise her daughter at their swimming pool, and tragically, the child drowned.”

Seidel could receive from 3 to 11 years in prison. She scheduled for sentencing, ironically, on the anniversary of her daughter’s death, August 6, 2015.

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