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TAMPA (FOX 13) - A Tampa mother went away to prison after her baby drowned. She left her baby in the bathtub while she answered the door for a sales call. Now, out of prison and on probation, Sierra McMillan told a judge she just had another baby and wants to spend more time with her newborn.
"I'm doing the best I can,” she said. “I don't want to be judged on the past for past things because if we were all judged on past things then we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
But McMillan’s past is hard to ignore. In April of 2013, tragedy came to her front door. A Verizon salesman showed up and interrupted her baby's bath time.
"He was seven months of age at the time of the offense. He was in the bathtub with the water running," said prosecutor Courtney Derry.
McMillan became distracted.
"The defendant, while speaking to him, neglected the child. She left the child inside the tub. The baby ultimately ended up drowning, " Derry continued.
McMillan was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by probation. Now she wants her probation tweaked to allow her unsupervised time with her new baby.
Prosecutor Aaron Hubbard was against it. "The child is placed with her sister so she has she's allowed supervised contact with the child,” he pointed out.
Hubbard also told the judge that McMillan has skipped parenting classes, which violates her probation.
But McMillan said there was a reason for that.
“The reason I didn't go to the parenting classes is because I had surgery. I was admitted into the hospital when I missed a class,” she insisted.
But that wasn't enough for the judge, who decided her probation would remain the same. McMillan walked away quietly, disappointed.