Mother who smoked pot, drank shots convicted of manslaughter

BELFAST, Maine – A Maine woman who told jurors that she drank multiple shots of liquor and smoked marijuana the night of her infant son’s death has been convicted of manslaughter.

Jurors returned the guilty verdict Tuesday evening, a day after 32-year-old Miranda Hopkins took the stand in her own defence in a courtroom in Belfast.

The Troy resident says she doesn’t know how 7-week-old Jaxson died in January. But she previously told police that one of her two autistic sons may have been responsible.

Police say Hopkins had been drinking whisky and told investigators that she must have “blacked out.” She said she woke up to find her baby cold and “beat to hell.”

The baby’s cause of death was listed as blunt force head injuries.