Woman pleads not guilty to charges in Iowa infant’s death

PRIMGHAR, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman accused of allowing her infant daughter to be abused by the baby’s father has been sentenced to probation. The Sioux City Journal reports that 22-year-old Brittanee Baker, of Sheldon, pleaded guilty last week to one count of felony child endangerment. She received a five-year suspended prison sentence and two years’ probation. Police say Baker told officials that her 5-month-old daughter had been hurt in 2020 by a lamp knocked over by cats in her home. But police determined that the baby’s father, 21-year-old Lawrence Ruotolo Jr., injured the baby when she wouldn’t stop crying, then suffocated the infant the next day. Ruotolo was sentenced in September to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of child endangerment.