Columbia woman pleads guilty in St. Louis baby’s death

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia woman pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge for pressuring her boyfriend to kill his 3-month-old child.

Emily Paul, 31, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a St. Louis courtroom in the 2017 death of Ayden Baker, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. She was originally charged with first-degree murder. A judge sentenced her to four months in prison followed by five years of probation, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Paul could serve 10 years in prison if she violates probation.

Paul was arrested in Columbia about three weeks after Ayden Baker's suffocation death in April 2017. The Post-Dispatch reported at the time that investigators found text messages between Paul and Jibri Baker, Paul's boyfriend, in which Paul pressures Baker to kill the baby.

Baker was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in February to second-degree murder and assault.

The Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday that prosecutors reduced Paul's charge to manslaughter because she did not explicitly tell Baker in the messages to kill the boy.