Woman pleads guilty in child abandonment case

SALT LAKE CITY — A Poplar Grove woman admitted Tuesday she left her 13-month-old son with a another woman and never came back.

Jacqueline Lyneetra Vides, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a reduced charge of attempted child abuse, a class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced to up to a year in jail.

Vides is already serving up to 15 years in prison on drug charges and will serve her new sentence concurrently.

Vides said she left her son with another woman in November 2009. The toddler was found alone in "deplorable" conditions when Vides' landlord heard crying and entered the apartment, prosecutors said.

Investigators believe the child was alone for one or two days in the garbage-filled apartment. The child was placed in state custody and has since been adopted.

Defense attorney Raymond Shuey said Vides did not leave the child in "reasonable circumstances" and did not make adequate arrangements for his long-term care. Prosecutors maintained, however, that Vides never tried to contact her child or find out what happened to him after she left him.

Vides was notified of the child's condition when she was arrested about a month later on unrelated charges.

She initially faced a third-degree felony charge of child abandonment but prosecutors reduced the charge in exchange for the guilty plea.

— Josh Smith