Ashley White had five years of probation trimmed from her sentence after the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled she should not be held criminally responsible for her son’s septic tank drowning.
The amended sentence marks the conclusion of an emotional case that was closely followed around Southwest Virginia from the time 5-year-old Noah Thomas went missing in 2015, until White was found guilty of causing his death through neglect in 2016.
That charge was reversed earlier this year, as The Roanoke Times featured White’s case in its 7-part podcast “Septic.”
Legal proceedings continued after the reversal, as the state attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court of Virginia to hear the matter. The state’s highest court said in May it would not hear the case and shortly after prosecutors said they would not pursue any further action.
The amended sentence, filed on Nov. 20, marked the official end of the case.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Bradley Finch initially found White, 34, guilty of three felonies: two counts of child abuse and neglect for leaving Noah and his 6-month-old sister home alone in a separate incident, and one — more serious — count of child abuse and neglect leading to injury related to the time White says she was sleeping and Noah died.
White did not appeal the two lesser charges, but the more serious neglect leading to injury conviction was reversed on appeal in September 2017.
“As tragic as the facts of this care are, to affirm this conviction would be to hold that [the law] requires a parent to search out potential dangers and continuously supervise his or her child,” Virginia Court of Appeals Judge William Petty wrote in the majority opinion. “A parent could be subject to a felony conviction if he or she failed to recognize the danger posed by the unsecured tank cover, the unlatched gate, the rotted board, the unfenced pond, or any other hazard that, in hindsight, could have been corrected.”
White was initially sentenced to serve a total of one year and 11 months, followed by 15 years of probation.