Mom Charged After Infant Drowns in Bathtub

A North Tampa woman has been arrested and charged with aggrevated manslaughter of a child after she left her 7-month-old infant inside a bathtub with the water running for at least 15 minutes, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. The child drowned in the tub.

Deputies say that Sierra McMillan, 22, of 14512 Seaford Circle placed her baby in the bathtub and turned on the water on April 28. When the doorbell rang, she left the baby in the tub with the water running, answered the door and spent time speaking with a solicitor.

The solictor later told deputies that he heard a baby crying in the apartment and after a few minutes, the child stopped crying, according to a media release from the sheriff’s office. That same solicitor said that about 15-20 minutes later, McMillan went into the bathroom to turn off the water. When she returned, her shirt was wet, deputies say.

When the solictor later saw emergency medical personnel leaving the apartment, he told deputies what he witnessed, according to the release.

“An autopsy of the victim was conducted and the manner of death was listed as accident and the cause of death as drowning of an unattended child,” the release says.

McMillan was arrested on April 29.

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