Woman accused of letting infant drown in bathtub pleads not guilty

Writer: Carolina Guzman
Published: Updated:
Nicole Marie Laber, 29. (CREDIT: Collier County Sheriff’s Office)

The woman accused of letting a baby in her care drown in a bathtub faced a judge on Monday and entered a not guilty plea for manslaughter charges.

According to Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Nicole Laber staged the scene to make it look like an accident.

Laber told deputies she briefly left the baby inside the house, unattended, to retrieve her dog and another young child in her care. When she returned to the home, Laber claimed the baby was face down in the dog’s water bowl. 

Investigators found that she left the infant unattended in the bathtub while strapped to a booster seat. The infant drowned after the booster seat tipped over and trapped the child under a few inches of water.

Laber is accused of staging the scene to make it look like the baby drowned in the dog’s water bowl.

She will be back in court on August 29.

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