Mont. Woman Gets Probation for Letting Infant Freeze to Death

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana woman accused of allowing her infant daughter to freeze to death in an apartment has been sentenced to 10 years of probation.

The Great Falls Tribune reports Misty Cutburth was given a 10-year suspended sentence Wednesday after previously pleading no contest to criminal endangerment. Her probationary sentence is contingent upon her admission to drug treatment court.

Police were called to Cutburth's Great Falls apartment in January 2016 on a report of an unresponsive baby and found her daughter, Kendall, in the bathroom. The nighttime temperature that week was about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degree Celsius), and windows to the bedrooms had been left wide open.

Investigators also found foil in the apartment that tested positive for methamphetamine.

The prosecution said that because Cutburth was asleep, it was hard to determine intent in Kendall's death.

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