Collier County woman pleads no contest, gets...

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — A woman previously accused of killing her infant she left alone in a bathtub pleaded no contest to manslaughter on Tuesday.

According to court documents, Nicole Laber will spend 10 years in prison, with two years taken off for time served.

Back in June 2023, the Collier County Sheriff's Office said the child drowned in the bathtub and Laber lied to deputies about how it happened.

Laber initially told deputies she had briefly left the infant inside the house unattended while she went to retrieve her dog and another young child in her care after they went out the front door, the sheriff's office said. When she returned, she said she found the infant slumped over on the floor, face-down, in the dog’s water bowl.

However, investigators said evidence revealed Laber left the infant unattended in a bathtub while strapped to a booster seat. The infant drowned after the booster seat tipped over and trapped the child under a few inches of water.

Detectives said afterward, Laber cleaned up the scene and dressed the deceased child in a diaper to make the drowning look like an accident.