Daycare owner, 54, breaks down in tears as she pleads guilty to killing baby who she forced down for a nap
A California daycare owner broke down in court after admitting she allowed a baby to die after his head was fatally wedged between a plastic bed frame and the railing of his crib.
Stacy Lee Snow, 54, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 16-month-old girl who was found unresponsive in her crib on April 8, 2025.
Snow was sentenced to three years in prison following sentencing on Friday; There he confronted the baby’s family and became emotional, apologizing for causing the girl’s death and admitting “this could have been prevented.”
‘I am ashamed of my negligence,’ he said.
‘I won’t ask for your forgiveness because I don’t deserve it.’
Snow owned and operated a home daycare called Snow Angels Child Care and Preschool in El Cajon, California, for 13 years, and the morning the girl died in her care was the fourth time she had picked her up that day.
Prosecutors said the baby was fussier than usual that day, so Snow put him in his crib for a nap to calm him down.
He then covered the crib with a plastic bed frame and a mesh centerpiece to prevent her from getting out, before leaving the girl alone in the room with the door closed.
The baby girl was found an hour later with her head stuck between the plastic bed frame and the crib railings, and a medical doctor determined she had died of asphyxiation.
Stacy Lee Snow, a 54-year-old California nursery owner who was sentenced to three years behind bars, admitted to letting a baby die after his head got stuck between a plastic bed frame and the railing of his crib.
Snow owned and operated a home daycare called Snow Angels Child Care (pictured) and Preschool in El Cajon, California, but admitted to leaving the girl alone for more than an hour by placing a plastic cot over her crib to force her to nap.
Under California law, Snow was required to check on the girl at least every 15 minutes while she was in her care.
Her mother, whose name was not disclosed during the court hearings, also reportedly told Snow not to let her daughter sleep while she was at daycare because she wanted her daughter to stay awake throughout the day to tire her out.
But Snow admitted he ignored it, leaving the girl alone in the room for at least an hour, and told police he returned to the room to find the girl passed out and stuck in her cot.
Snow said he desperately tried to perform CPR as paramedics rushed to the scene.
The San Diego Sheriff’s Office said first responders found the baby ‘on the living room floor’ when they arrived at the scene.
The baby girl was taken to a local hospital where she was tragically pronounced dead. The coroner ruled that the cause of death was ‘accidental asphyxia’. Law and Crime.
At sentencing, the judge criticized Snow for his ‘deliberate and negligent choices’ and gave him the maximum sentence allowable for manslaughter charges.
The judge described the baby’s death as ‘an absolutely and completely preventable tragedy’.
In his own sentencing statement, Snow apologized to the victim’s mother, saying: ‘Not a day goes by that I don’t think about this tragic incident and all the ways it could have been prevented had I not been so careless with my actions.’
As he was sentenced to three years in prison, Snow apologized to the victim’s mother, telling her: ‘I am ashamed of my negligence. ‘I won’t ask for your forgiveness because I don’t deserve it’
Snow was reprimanded by the judge, who said she had killed the baby in a ‘absolutely and completely preventable tragedy’.
The nursery owner had been running the nursery for 13 years and had no reports or issues with the Ministry of Social Services before the child’s death.
As part of his three-year sentence, Snow will spend the final six months of his release under mandatory supervision and his child care license has been revoked.
At sentencing, the victim’s mother said the tragedy had devastated her family and said a year later she still had not packed up her baby’s toys and clothes.
‘I still can’t pack her things because doing so feels like losing her all over again,’ she said.
‘I can’t get over the last time I said goodbye.’
The daycare owner is currently facing a pending wrongful death lawsuit from the victim’s family.
She had been running a nursery for 13 years and had no reports or issues with the Ministry of Social Services before the child’s death. San Diego Union Tribune reported.
