Beech Tree News Network

MORGANTOWN – A woman whose 5-month-old daughter died under suspicious circumstances was sentenced to 12 months of home incarceration on Wednesday, concluding a criminal case in which an earlier conviction against her for first-degree manslaughter was overturned.

Brittany Garcia, 27, was sentenced in Butler Circuit Court by Special Judge Kent Howard on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.

Garcia had pleaded guilty to the charge, accepting a plea agreement recommending monitored home confinement as an alternative sentence to 10 years in prison.

Garcia and Nick Staples, 32, of Morgantown, had originally been charged with murder and first-degree criminal abuse in connection with the death of Angel Tucker.

A state medical examiner determined that the baby died Dec. 4, 2009, of a lack of oxygen to the brain, preceded by a head injury resulting from severe blunt force trauma, according to court records.

Angel was also found to have rib fractures in various stages of healing.

Garcia and Staples took their cases to trial, and a Butler County jury found them guilty in 2011 of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree criminal abuse.

The pair were tried together, and neither of them testified.

Garcia received a 15-year sentence at the time, while Staples was ordered to serve 25 years.

The Kentucky Supreme Court examined the record of the trial after the convictions and found that the jury was improperly instructed on the law regarding first-degree manslaughter, leading the state's high court to overturn the manslaughter convictions against both Garcia and Staples while upholding the convictions for first-degree criminal abuse.

Staples pleaded guilty last year to first-degree manslaughter, accepting a 15-year sentence.

Garcia served her five-year sentence on the first-degree criminal abuse count and was free pending her sentencing Wednesday.

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Date: 05-04-2017

By Justin Story
Bowling Green Daily News

Kentucky Press News Service

– Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.