Mother Sentenced for Killing Baby

WARREN, Ohio (AP) â€” A woman who drugged her newborn's formula so he would sleep while she went barhopping has been sentenced to five years in prison for the 2-month-old's death. <br><br>Trumbull

Thursday, January 11th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WARREN, Ohio (AP) â€” A woman who drugged her newborn's formula so he would sleep while she went barhopping has been sentenced to five years in prison for the 2-month-old's death.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan told Nicole Phillips, 25, before sentencing Tuesday that her son, Tavares, should have been more important than going out with friends.

Phillips declined comment before sentencing, but her attorney, Anthony Consoldane, said his client did not intend to kill her son.

``She loved her baby,'' Consoldane said. ``This is a terrible tragedy.''

Phillips laced her son's bottle with a prescription painkiller on Oct. 16, 1999, prosecutors said. The infant died the next day.

She pleaded guilty last month to one charge each of corrupting another with drugs and involuntary manslaughter and could have been ordered to serve 10 years in prison.