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Niagara Falls mother avoids jail for baby's fatal overdose

A Niagara Falls mother has avoided jail time in connection with her guilty plea in November to criminally negligent homicide.

Brittany Panepinto, 29, admitted giving her 2-month-old daughter Arabella Lynne Mease liquid Benadryl in a baby bottle because the infant wasn't feeling well. Instructions say the medicine should not be administered to any child under the age of 2.

She was sentenced in Niagara County Court to five years probation for the incident, which took place the night of May 5, 2018.

The court sentence also applies for a misdemeanor assault charge that resulted eight days later, when Panepinto bit a nurse in the arm while hospitalized for mental health treatment.

Mark Wozniak, WBFO's local All Things Considered host, has been at WBFO since mid-1978.
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