Alabama Mom Sentenced to Life in Prison for Suffocating 4-Year-Old Daughter with Pillow
A woman from Athens, Alabama, named Stephanie Diane Smith, has been sentenced to life in prison for the horrific murder of her 4-year-old daughter, Zadie Wren Cooper, in 2016. However, there is a possibility of parole in the future for Smith. Rather than waiting for a jury trial, she decided to plead guilty to the charge of suffocating her young daughter, opting for a reduced charge of felony murder instead of the original capital murder charge, as reported by WHNT.
The tragic incident occurred on July 4, 2016, when Smith made an emergency 911 call to Athens Police, reporting that her daughter was not breathing. According to investigators, Smith claimed to have heard something concerning on the baby monitor and then discovered her child wedged between the wall and the bed, unresponsive.
Months went by, and in October 2016, during interviews with the Department of Human Resources and investigators, Smith provided the same account of events, as documented by The News Courier. It wasn’t until April 13, 2017, that Stephanie Diane Smith went to the Athens Police Department and confessed to the smothering death of her daughter, which had occurred nine months prior.
During her confession, Smith revealed that she had been suffering from a mental health condition and had not been consistently taking her prescribed medication leading up to the tragic event. She claimed to have experienced a blackout, only realizing her actions when she removed the pillow from Zadie Wren Cooper’s face and discovered that the child was not breathing, as detailed in a report by The News Courier.
