Woman sentenced to prison for drowning her baby while she was on meth, opioids

A woman accused of drowning her 5-month-old daughter in a flooded Socastee creek in 2015 pleaded guilty Wednesday to homicide by child abuse after a forensic psychologist testified the woman was under the influence of methamphetamine and opioids at the time of the child’s death.

Judge Steven John sentenced 34-year-old Sarah Lane Toney to 27 years in prison with credit for time served.

Toney gasped and cried as the sentence was handed down. “Oh God,” she wailed, exiting the courtroom.

On Nov. 3, 2015, Toney left her home on Simms Drive in Socastee. With her 5-month-old daughter, Grace Carlson Santa Cruz, in her arms, Toney went into a creek that borders the house. Toney was seen drenched and alone on the porch of a residence on Shem Creek Circle, saying she went into the creek with her baby, police said.

Horry County police began searching for the missing baby at 10:30 a.m. after the resident of the Shem Creek Circle house called authorities.

Following a nearly three-day search, rescue divers found the baby, who came to be known by the community as “Baby Grace,” about 50 yards from where her mother entered the water in Socastee.

Toney initially was charged with negligence in the days that followed, but the count was upgraded to homicide by child abuse.

Neighbors told police Toney was complaining the morning she entered the creek that her baby would not stop crying, Horry County Deputy Solicitor Scott Hixson told the court.

Toney also told police she was in the water looking for God, according to a police report.

“(The officer) observed (Toney) to be in emotional distress and exhibited behavior normally associated with the use of methamphetamine (twitching, scratching of skin),” said the incident report filed the day Grace was reported missing. Toney was tested for drugs.

A toxicology screen showed Toney was under the influence of methamphetamine and opioids when she walked into the flooded creek with her daughter, according to testimony from Dr. Emily Gottfried, a forensic psychologist.

Gottfried found Toney competent to stand trial and “criminally responsible” for her daughter’s death, she told the court. Gottfried said Toney had a long history of substance and alcohol abuse.

“This is a lifelong history of drug abuse that resulted in … the abuse of a child that led to a murder,” Hixson said.

But Toney’s attorney, Jonathan Fox, pleaded for leniency in sentencing, saying his client had a troubled life. She was sexually abused as a young girl, he said, and her parents both struggled with substance abuse.

“Sarah Toney is absolutely devastated. This was her child,” Fox said. “She had no intent to harm her child.”

Although both sides admitted that Toney’s substance abuse issues played a part in her actions on Nov. 3, 2015, Fox contended that postpartum depression could have been another factor that lured her to the creek that day.

During a Nov. 5, 2015, bond hearing, Toney calmly told an Horry County Magistrate court judge she couldn’t hold on to her child in the rushing water. Her bond on the homicide charge was denied, and Toney has remained in custody at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center since her arrest.

Hixson said Baby Grace was wearing a pink onesie and a diaper on the day she died, submitting to the court a photograph of the infant. Toney doubled over crying as she looked at the photo. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue clutched in one of her hands that were shackled to a chain around her waist.

Hixson said that when Grace was recovered from the creek, her body was sent to a lab that specializes in infant forensic pathology to confirm her cause of death. The results showed water was found in the baby’s stomach and lungs, and a doctor was able to determine Grace “was alive prior to her … being killed in the water,” Hixson told the court.

Her attorney said that they initially intended to seek an insanity defense, but they withdrew the motion in lieu of Wednesday’s plea.

Hixson said that the solicitor’s office offered Toney no deal to settle the case outside of a trial, but the plea did help Toney escape a possible life sentence.

Toney will have to serve 85 percent of her 27-year sentence before she will be eligible for parole, Hixson said after the hearing.

The death of her infant child wasn’t the first time the endangerment of Toney’s children came to the attention of local or state officials.

Toney was about six months pregnant with “Baby Grace” when she appeared in an Horry County courtroom in March 2015 to plead guilty to drug charges. A police report says the drug was a 100 milligram fentanyl patch, and according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, long-term use can cause life-threatening withdrawal symptoms for newborn babies.

Toney was sentenced to two years in jail for the drug charge, but the term was suspended. Instead, she was placed on probation for one year and was ordered to undergo random drug testing and substance-abuse counseling. She was still on probation the day Grace died.

Baby Grace was laid to rest at Hillcrest Cemetery in Conway. Her grave is marked by a headstone with a child-like angel petting a sheep enclosed in a border of hearts, which was paid for through donations from the community. The Horry County Coroner's Office remembers Baby Grace annually in a memorial service that also recognizes Baby Boy Horry, an abandoned infant who died in 2008 and who is buried near her.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Woman sentenced to prison for drowning her baby while she was on meth, opioids."