Croton mom gets probation in daughter's death

A Croton mother who pleaded guilty to causing the death of her daughter last April has been sentenced to probation. Kathleen Dymes received five years of probation and no jail time when she faced a

News 12 Staff

Apr 13, 2016, 1:10 AM

Updated 3,123 days ago

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A Croton mother who pleaded guilty to causing the death of her daughter last April has been sentenced to probation.
Kathleen Dymes received five years of probation and no jail time when she faced a judge in Westchester County Court Tuesday.
Dymes, 52, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor charges of child endangerment and criminal possession of a controlled substance in January.
Lacey Carr was found unresponsive on Easter Sunday 2015 in her bed at her grandfather's home on Hastings Avenue.
Dymes was unconscious on the floor next to the bed. They were both rushed to Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, where Lacey was pronounced dead. Toxicology tests performed on the first-grader revealed that a number of different drugs were present in her system, including Benadryl, morphine and diazepam.
Dymes was a registered nurse, and may be suffering from her own addiction. She could have gotten four years behind bars, but Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli thought that was excessive for what she termed an "accident."
Prosecutors say they wanted Dymes to get significant jail time and quoted court documents to show how she blamed her daughter.
"I don't feel like I killed her. I don't look at it that way. She was six and a half years old and she knew better," said Dymes.
During the sentencing, Dymes cried openly as prosecutors read from her daughter's first-grade report card.
Prosecutors say a recent drug test showed that Dymes had marijuana in her system.
She apparently told the probation department it was secondhand smoke coming from the hotel where she was living.