HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) A Kansas woman who left a hair dryer running to warm her infant daughter on a freezing night has pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the baby’s death.
Brigit Hippen, of Hutchinson, had been scheduled to go on trial Tuesday for a second time on a charge of second-degree murder. Instead, she pleaded to the lesser charge in Reno County District Court.
KWBW-AM reports that Hippen faces roughly three to 11 years in prison. She’ll be sentenced Feb. 24 two years and one day after 2-month-old Karina Perez died of hyperthermia.
Hippen told investigators she placed a running hair dryer near Karina’s bassinet to warm the baby, then fell asleep. Doctors have said Karina’s temperature was 108 when she died.
Hippen’s first trial ended in a mistrial.
