A 25-year-old woman was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison after admitting to her role in the poisoning death of her infant daughter nearly five years ago.
Sarah Canales, formerly Mills, has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since Jan. 10 after her bond was surrendered, appeared in the 137th District Court with her attorney, Matt Morrow, and pleaded guilty to a count of manslaughter, which carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.
She admitted to her role in the July 11, 2021 overdose death of her 2-month-old daughter, Athena.
She and her husband, 34-year-old Adam Canales Jr., were both charged in connection with the girl’s death.
Prosecutors argued that the couple purposely gave the infant different types of medicine to sedate her.
“It wasn’t a mistake, or that they were giving her allergy medicine for allergies,” said prosecutor Greg Jerman after Mills’ plea. “They were trying to sedate her, which is, I think, obviously risky — very reckless behavior — and they knew that it was because they were trying to deceive law enforcement and lie about it up front, both of them.”
District Judge John McClendon sentenced Adam Canales Jr. in September to 20 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
Investigating a Lubbock infant death
His punishment, which was enhanced because of prior convictions, followed a jury trial that began Aug. 25, during which prosecutors presented evidence that showed Canales recklessly dosed his daughter with anti-allergy medication to make her sleep.
A toxicologist told jurors that the two-month-old girl had amounts of allergy drugs that were toxic — and even lethal — to adults.
Dr. Robert Johnson, the chief toxicologist for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office who analyzed a sample of Athena’s blood, told jurors it contained nearly 2,000 ng/ml of Diphenhydramine, an active ingredient in the allergy medication, Benadryl.
The girl also had concentrations of Dextromethorphan and Doxylamine in her system. Both drugs are commonly found in cold medication such as Nyquil.
Prosecutors built their case against Canales on his video-recorded interviews with police on the day of Athena’s death and about a month later when detectives obtained her toxicology report.
During the first interview, which lasted about 90 minutes, Canales said his child had kept them up crying all night long.
He said he last checked on her about 1 p.m. when he put her down for a nap and found her unresponsive three hours later.
He told the detective that Athena suffered from colic, which he said he and Mills treated with gas drops and gripe water.
He said his daughter typically stops crying when held but starts up again if he laid her down.
Jurors also watched a video of Canales and Mills answering questions from a sudden unexpected death investigation reporting form, during which neither parent disclosed giving the child cold or allergy medication.
During his second interview with detectives, Canales initially denied giving the medications when the detective asked if he gave the baby cough medicine.
“I know I didn’t give her anything,” he said.
However, he admitted to only giving his daughter the allergy medication.
When the detective asked him if he knew that he wasn’t supposed to give infants the medication, Canales responded, “you know how many people do, though?” He added that he remembers being given medication as a child.
Canales could be heard telling the detective that he would give his daughter antihistamine medications mostly to relieve her allergy symptoms, but also admitted to times he gave her the medication to make her sleep.
“I was out of it. I really can’t remember too much,” he said. “I’m telling you what I recall.”
He told the detective he remembered giving his daughter the medication twice the day she died.
“That second one was to try to get her to sleep,” he said.
He said it was possible that after giving his daughter the allergy medication, his wife gave her the cold medication while he was sleeping.
“That’s when the communication skills should have kicked in,” he said.
He said he’d given his daughter allergy medications two weeks before to get her to sleep so he and Mills could “do grown up things.”
Meanwhile, Mills could be heard in the interview correcting her husband as he answered the form.
“She was correcting him quite a bit and changing his version of events, which given the scientific evidence, her corrections were still not what happened,” Jerman said. “It’s not consistent those levels of (medication listed in the baby’s toxicology report).”
Jerman said the investigation into Athena’s death showed her parent’s actions were more than just negligent but reckless.
“It’s beyond just not reading the instructions,” he said. “They were obviously trying to sedate the child, they knew they shouldn’t have given their dishonesty in the beginning, that’s why it rose to the level of recklessness. It was a pretty egregious conduct, especially, for a parent to their child. and we do expect in society that parents care for their children.
The two were arrested in January 2022 and were released on bond three months later.
After Canales’ conviction and sentence, Mills was set to appear in court for a guilty plea in December. However, court officials said she backed out of the plea offer and her case was tentatively set for a trial February.
She was set to appear in court for a pre-trial but attorneys told the court that Mills was accepting a plea offer.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock woman gets 12-year sentence in daughter’s 2021 overdose death
Reporting by Gabriel Monte, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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