The former owner of a Rancho San Diego daycare business who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a toddler’s fatal injuries was sentenced Friday to three years in county jail, with the final six months of the sentence to be served on mandatory supervision.
Read more At least one killed in I-15 crash in Mira Mesa
Stacy Lee Snow, 54, who is also facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the child’s mother, was sentenced in connection with the April 8, 2025, death of a 16-month-old girl.
The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause of death was accidental asphyxia after the child’s head became wedged between a plastic cot placed on top of a portable crib and the crib’s railing at the daycare center.
Prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents that the girl’s mother specifically instructed Snow not to have the girl nap at daycare.
Superior Court Judge CJ Mody, who imposed the maximum sentence allowed, said that “repeated intentional and negligent choices” led to “a tragedy that was absolutely and wholly avoidable.”
The judge said that a number of state child care licensing violations occurred in the time leading up to the girl’s death, including Snow failing to check on the girl every 15 minutes and leaving the child in a bedroom with a closed door.
Snow’s defense attorney, Oscar Valencia, asked for a term of probation, with the possibility of serving any custody on work furlough or home detention.
He wrote in sentencing documents that Snow voluntarily surrendered her childcare license one week after the girl’s death and said his client “has never minimized or avoided acceptance of responsibility” and pleaded guilty at an early stage “not just because she accepts responsibility but also would not want to add additional stress and pain to (the girl’s) parents.”
Read more Man fatally stabbed near downtown San Diego courthouse
In a letter to the judge, Snow wrote, “There is not a day that 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.”
In court, Snow apologized to the girl’s family.
“I am ashamed of my negligence, and I will not ask for your forgiveness because I do not deserve it,” she said.
The girl’s mother said in court that she was initially nervous about placing her daughter in daycare, but was comforted that Snow said “she opened her daycare because she did not trust other people to care for her own children and wanted to help other mothers … I trusted her with the most important person in my life because I believed she understood the responsibility and trust that comes with caring for someone else’s child.”
The woman said Snow assured her that she would respect the child’s routine, including her request that the girl not nap there.
The girl’s mother said she now struggles with trusting others and that experiences around other children in her family have been tainted by her daughter’s death.
“Every time I hear a child cry, it feels like a knife to the heart,” she said. “I still cannot bring myself to pack away her belongings because doing so feels like losing her all over again.”
The girl’s father wrote in a letter read aloud in court that thinking of his daughter’s final hours has caused him panic attacks and that he’s dreamed for months about what occurred.
Read more Interim US-Iran peace deal sparks anger among Israelis, who lash out at Netanyahu
“I can’t shake the last time that I said goodbye,” he wrote.
Snow will begin her custodial term in August.
