Mom who admitted smothering two-month-old baby girl to death while high on meth ... trends now
An Indianapolis mother has been found not guilty of neglectfully smothering her child to death - as a judge shockingly said he would have found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide.
Dacia Lacey, 32, walked free after a judge ruled that prosecutors brought inappropriate charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, contending they didn't prove she killed her two-month-old daughter Alona on purpose.
The mother admitted to police that she smothered the infant with couch cushions while she was high on methamphetamines so she could 'get some sleep' in August 2022.
She wept in court this week as Judge Mark Stoner said he was freeing her 'reluctantly', insisting she was 'not innocent', but also 'not guilty of what the state has charged you with.'
The case was a bench trial, meaning it was only decided by a single judge instead of a jury.
Dacia Lacey, 32, walked free after a judge ruled that prosecutors brought inappropriate charges over the suffocation death of her baby daughter
Judge Mark Stoner said he was finding her not guilty 'reluctantly', insisting she was 'not innocent', but also 'not guilty of what the state has charged you with'
When Lacey was initially questioned over her daughter's death, she told officers that it was a freak accident caused by her children playing with the baby on a couch.
However, five months later, she admitted to smothering her child with couch cushions because she wouldn't stop crying when she faced another interrogation.
At her trial, the court heard a recording of the 911 call she made after her the death, where she was heard screaming and crying at a dispatcher.
'Oh my god! Oh my God! My baby is dead! My newborn baby is dead!' she said in the recording.
By the time emergency services arrived at her home, the infant was already dead, reports WTHR. A toxicology report found the mother had meth in her system at the time.
An autopsy failed to rule over a cause of death, and was unable to determine if it was caused by a homicide or trauma.
A video was also played to the court showing how Lacey showed investigators with a baby doll how she put the baby in a rocking swing with a bottle, before she went to sleep.
However, her claims at the time - before she confessed - were countered by testimony from her five-year-old daughter, who recalled witnessing the death of her newborn sister.
She testified: 'Mom was mad, hit the baby with a pillow and put the pillow on her face.'
But Judge Stoner later said that the child's testimony couldn't be
