Man Gets 6 Months for Baby Daughter's Bathtub Drowning

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — A western Maryland man is starting a six-month jail term after pleading guilty in the bathtub drowning of his 10-month-old daughter.

Twenty-five-year-old Darius Jackson of Hagerstown pleaded guilty Monday to reckless endangerment in the July 2015 death of Juliette Nicholson. The judge suspended the remainder of a five-year sentence.

Prosecutors dropped charges of manslaughter and child neglect in return for Jackson's plea.

Jackson acknowledged he left the girl in a bath seat for several minutes with the water running in a tub that also held her 2-year-old brother.

Defense attorney Robert Sheehan says Jackson also was dealing with a third child and negotiating a car sale on the telephone. Sheehan calls it "multi-tasking." Prosecutor Sarah Mollett-Gaumer calls it "distracted parenting."