UTICA (AP) -- A 19-year-old woman was sentenced to three years of probation in connection with the car crash that killed her 5-year-old daughter last summer in North Utica.
Tamarh Johnson of Rome was sentenced Tuesday in Utica City Court. Oneida County prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Johnson to some time in jail.
Johnson's lawyer says she wasn't speeding as she entered the Interstate 790 ramp from Route 12 over the Barge Canal the night of the accident. He said 5-year-old Makiah unbuckled her seatbelt in the back seat of the minivan and Johnson lost control of the vehicle as she was yelling at the child to sit back down.
Johnson was originally charged with criminally negligent homicide but that was dropped. She pleaded guilty in June to endangering the welfare of a child.
Under terms of her probation she has to take parenting classes. She recently had another baby.
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