Mom Guilty of Homicide for No Car Seat

C H A T T A N O O G A, Tenn., June 15 -- A jury has convicted a woman of criminally negligent homicide in the death of her 2-year-old son, who was in her lap instead of a car seat during a car crash.

Latrece Jones, 20, was found guilty Thursday in what the Hamilton County prosecutor believes is the first time in Tennessee homicide charges have been brought against an adult in the death of a child under the state's child restraint law.

She faces up to two years in prison, but a judge and the prosecutor said she will likely receive probation instead of jail time. Jones has no criminal history.

Assistant District Attorney Parke Masterson tells ABCNEWS' Good Morning America that he hopes the case will lead to fewer deaths, not more prosecutions."I think beneficially it can send a message that children need to be restrained and it shows the serious risks involved if you don't," he says.

"The lesson is that if we're going to pass laws to protect children and we're going to prosecute people for not having their child in a seat, and take them to court when the ultimate harm happens, I think we have to take action," Masterson says. "And in this case, in our state, it fit the criminally negligent homicide statute."

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Jones' son, Carlson Bowens Jr., was sitting in her lap in the front passenger seat when another vehicle hit them on Nov. 9, 1998. An airbag crushed the boy to death, doctors said. Prosecutors pinned the blame on Jones, because she did not have the child in a car seat. Masterson says there were messages on the seat belts and the car's visors warning drivers against placing a child in the front seat.

The jury returned its verdict in one hour. The driver of the car, Letitia Abernathy, 28, was the girl's aunt. She, too, was charged with criminally negligent homicide.

Despite some criticism that Jones is a young mother from a low-income family who has been singled out for not using a car seat, Masterson said the evidence was there and the prosecution met its burden in this case.