Woman sentenced for killing friend’s child

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – A woman in southern Idaho who accidentally killed a friend’s child by holding him down on a couch until he stopped crying has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Elizabeth Miller, 22, must serve at least two years before she becomes eligible for parole. She called her method of quieting the child “a bad choice” at a sentencing hearing in Fifth District Court on Tuesday.

“It was a horrendous choice,” said Judge G. Richard Bevan before issuing the sentence, the Times-News reported.

Ashtyn Roger Lynn died on Jan. 12. Miller was originally charged with first-degree murder, but that was changed to second-degree murder when she entered an Alford plea, on Sept. 10, Grant Loebs, Twin Falls County prosecuting attorney, said Wednesday.

Under such a plea, a defendant admits no wrongdoing but concedes they would be convicted by a jury if the case went to trial. At sentencing, Idaho judges treat Alford pleas no differently than a regular guilty plea.

Both her defense attorney and the prosecutor agreed that Miller did not intend to hurt Ashtyn.

According to police, Miller was celebrating her 22nd birthday with a belated party that included her husband, Richard, and their two children. Also at the apartment were Ashtyn’s mother, Joylene Lynn, 22, and her friend Danny Hubbard.

Ashtyn’s father, Will Lynn, was in prison at the time of his son’s death.

“I’m very sorry for what happened to Ashtyn and to you,” Miller said to Ashtyn’s parents. “He was like a nephew to me. He was very, very special to me and he can never be replaced.”

Police reported that Miller said she and her husband wanted to have “birthday sex” about midnight, and she put her two children to bed.

However, Ashtyn would not stop crying. According to police, Miller put him on a couch and held him down by leaning on him, a technique she said she used on her own children. She “continued to hold him until he stopped struggling and stopped crying,” police reported.

“Accident or not, my son is gone,” said Will Lynn. “I don’t get to watch him grow up and become a man.”