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WARREN, Pa. — The Warren woman charged in connection with the drowning death of her 2-year-old child in Hatch Run last August has pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment.
Nichol V. Barrett, 25, 3435 Conewango Ave. entered the plea before President Judge Maureen Skerda on Thursday at the Warren County Courthouse.
Barrett and her husband, Richard, were both charged with three felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child in October.
District Attorney Rob Greene said that the child is "deceased due to the criminal act."
He said Barrett has "suffered" as a result of the "horrible event" but "should still pay the price."
She then pled to one count of child endangerment while two additional counts were not prosecuted in exchange for the plea.
The incident took place in August and started when an area resident called 911 to report "finding two small children and a dog in Hatch Run Creek, a short distance from the Conewango River," police allege in the affidavit of probable cause. The resident reported that the children -- a 5-year-old girl and 4-year-old male -- told her that their "mother is gone" and that their mother "went away."
Shortly thereafter, police say a call was forwarded to state police from Nichol Barrett.
"During this phone call," police allege, Barrett "reported finding her daughter floating face down in Hatch Run Creek."
Troopers attempted CPR but the child was pronounced dead at Warren General Hospital and an autopsy determined the cause of death to be drowning.
Both defendants told police, per the affidavit, that there was only a "5-6 minute time frame" where they were "not physically seeing the children."
After an examination of the cell phone records, interview and 911 calls, police arranged a second interview with both defendants "as more information was needed to clarify come of the issues with the timeline and cell phone records."
Police explained an issue with the five- to six-minute timeframe and where the other two children were found, roughly 1/5th of a mile away.
"There is no physical way the children were able to get from the defendant's residence barefoot -- all three children were without shoes on -- through the dry and wet creek bed with rough rocks, briers, limbs and such in/around the creek," police state in the affidavit.
After the discussion about timelines and distance from the residence, police indicate in the affidavit several statements Nichol Barrett made.
"I am admitting if that is what happened, I am at fault for it and I'm wrong for it."
"I lost track of time and let my daughter go for 40 minutes, so ya, apparently, I'm bad. ... I shouldn't have been on my phone trying to get my daughter into school while my kids were outside. If they were gone for that long, it's my bad and I apologize for it. I am going to be paying for it for the rest of my life."