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A woman charged in the suffocation death of her two-month-old son after falling asleep in December of 2021 has been sentenced to probation.

Jocelyn Leslie Pater, 26, of St. Paul and formerly of Glenville, was sentenced to five years supervised probation for felony second degree manslaughter. The sentencing came Wednesday morning in Mower County District Court.

Pater was given credit for 69 days served.

She has several conditions to follow and violations of those conditions could result in 57 months in prison. She must also serve 200 hours of community work service.

Charges of felony child endangerment, felony cause or permit child, vulnerable adult  ingest, inhale and be exposed to meth and felony fifth degree drugs possession were all dismissed.

Pater had originally pleaded not guilty in June of 2022 to all charges, however, Pater amended her plea a month later in July to guilty on the manslaughter charge.

The child died on Dec. 17, 2021, four days after he was discovered with no pulse in the 400 block of 27th Street Southwest in Austin where Pater and he had been sleeping on a couch.

During questioning, Pater told police that she fell asleep on the couch on Dec. 13 and was awoken by another woman who discovered and pulled the child away.

The child had been discovered with his face in Pater’s chest and was observed to be purple and blue. After being taken to another apartment, mouth to mouth was performed on the child until police arrived.

The medical examiner’s autopsy report later revealed that the infant died due to overlay while co-sleeping with an adult. Prior to that, an MRI showed diffuse anoxic brain injury, which is caused by a complete lack of oxygen to the brain. A follow-up CT scan also showed diffuse anoxic brain injury as well as injuries to the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and midbrain.

Toxicology results also tested positive for methamphetamine, though, it was unclear whether or not the presence of meth had any contribution to the cause of death.

Pater, who has a history of drug use, was observed by witnesses prior to when the child was found and they told police that they believed she had been using methamphetamines again.

Pater told a detective that she hadn’t been using since she learned that she was pregnant, however, she later claimed that she had found some drugs in her apartment and relapsed.

A search of Pater’s apartment also turned up a loaded syringe of what appeared to be meth in a purse as well as discovering a digital scale, three needles in her bedroom, a meth pipe on the bed near the baby bottle, a bag of .08 grams of meth.

Baby bottles and a bottle nipple were also tested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension where the nipple tested positive for meth.

Eventually, Pater had admitted that she had been using drugs daily and that it started about three weeks prior. The urine analysis tested positive for both amphetamine and methamphetamine.