WATERLOO, Iowa – An Iowa woman will serve two years of probation after a 2-year-old boy she wanted to adopt reportedly overdosed on prescription medication and died.
According to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, authorities originally charged Amanda Roena Leonard-Hellum, 39, of Waterloo, with child endangerment causing death in the June 2019 incident. Investigators said Leonard-Hellum didn’t seek treatment for the child, Maximus, after he swallowed prescription pills in her car on the way to her boyfriend’s Des Moines home. The next day, police responded to the home and discovered the toddler dead, the newspaper reported.
In April, Leonard-Hellum agreed to a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a lesser neglect charge, according to The Associated Press. A judge sentenced her to probation last week.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
