Inset: Jaley Bush (Lee County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Bush being interviewed by law enforcement officers (Keokuk Police Department).
An Iowa woman’s fate has been sealed after she said she woke up to find that her baby had “rolled” into a trash bin before he died.
Jaley Bush was 28 late last year when she was charged with child endangerment resulting in death after her son, identified as R.S., died, as Law&Crime previously reported.
She has since been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter charges in May, according to Cedar Rapids-based ABC affiliate KCRG.
On Jan. 27, Bush was visiting a friend at his home on Hickory Terrace in Keokuk, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. She brought along her infant son, and the two of them “passed out” on a bed in a basement bedroom.
She awoke to find her son “head first and unresponsive inside of a trash can next to the bed,” the court document stated. The child had fallen asleep “on the inside portion of the bed” and the defendant believed he “must have crawled over or around her before falling into the trash can.”
Officers with the Keokuk Police Department responded to the home at about 2 p.m. that day and began lifesaving efforts on the child. Bush was there, too, and she apparently “exhibited signs of being under the influence of some form of narcotics as her demeanor was stoic and her speech appeared to be slurred.”
Law&Crime obtained body-worn camera footage of officers’ conversation with Bush at the residence. She tells them of her child, “he had rolled into the trash bag.”
Before falling asleep that day, Bush said she took Klonopin, a sedative that “produces a calming effect on the brain and nerves” and “helps to reduce anxiety, prevent seizures, and promote relaxation,” according to WebMD. She allegedly “did not know whom the pills belonged to,” according to the criminal complaint.
The next day, authorities got a search warrant to obtain a blood sample from Bush. She reportedly tested positive for methamphetamine and benzodiazepines, the latter of which is the classification for Klonopin. She told police she did not take any drugs from the time first responders arrived at her home to the time the drug test was taken, per the court document.
The baby was pronounced dead on Feb. 5 with the cause of death ruled to be asphyxia — a lack of oxygen.
Bush will serve her sentence at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women.
Keokuk is located in southeastern Iowa, straddling the borders of Missouri and Illinois.
