LAFAYETTE — A Lafayette woman who pleaded guilty to neglect charges after a family dog attacked and killed her baby boy will spend one-year in prison.
38-year-old Jennifer Connell was sentenced Monday in Tippecanoe County Superior Court to five-years, with four-years on supervised probation and one in prison.
In September, Connell pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury. A judge accepted the plea.
According to police, the infant died this past January after being attacked by the family's bull-terrier mix at their home on Greenbrush Street.
An officer arrived at the home to find the dog standing over one-month-old Julian Connell, who had been asleep in his mother's bedroom.
Julian had been attacked, suffering fatal head and neck injuries. The police officer had to shoot the dog to get it off the baby.
A second officer who worked the investigation described a "terrible odor" and "piles of dog feces all over the residence," where Connell lived with the baby and one older child. "Dead and decaying mice throughout the residence and roaches on the floor were observed," according to the police report.
Jennifer Connell said she knew the dog was aggressive and had gone after the baby before. She said she was trying to find another home for the dog at the time Julian was killed.
