HAYWARD, Wis. (WRN) — A Hayward woman will serve time in prison for child neglect and the death of her four-year-old daughter in 2021.
Last week, 30-year-old Samantha S. Smith was sentenced in Sawyer County to 15 years in prison and five years of extended supervision for felony chronic neglect of a child leading to death and repeated physical abuse of a child causing great bodily harm. Smith reached a plea deal to those charges last November.
A charge of first-degree intentional homicide was dismissed. She was given credit of four years of time already served.
Her codefendant, Domenic R. Falkner, also of Hayward, pled no contest to the same charges with a first-degree homicide charge being dropped. A sentencing hearing for Falkner is scheduled for May 1.
The couple were charged in March 2022 after an autopsy report said Smith’s 4-year-old daughter died of alcohol asphyxiation in July 2021. The child had limited mobility due to a disability from birth and required a wheelchair and a feeding tube.