YOUNGSTOWN — Adrianne L. Hudson, 33, was released from the Ohio prison system last week after Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney rescinded Hudson’s guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangering in the drowning death of a child in her care.

Sweeney granted a motion by Hudson’s lawyers to withdraw Hudson’s guilty plea Oct. 23. Sweeney ordered Hudson released from prison Nov. 6.

Sweeney sentenced Hudson on Oct. 3 to a minimum of six years and a maximum of nine years after Hudson pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangering.

The plea form on file in the case states that prosecutors were going to recommend that Hudson get eight to 12 years in prison, but her attorneys were free to argue for less at sentencing.

However, defense attorneys Lou DeFabio and Tom Zena filed a motion Oct. 21 asking Sweeney to rescind Hudson’s guilty plea on the grounds that Hudson did not make a “knowing, intelligent or voluntary” decision to plead guilty because it was “induced by a promised sentence (from Sweeney) and that promised sentence, ultimately, was not imposed.”

The filing states that Sweeney promised a second time Aug. 15 to impose a 5-year sentence, and “based upon that promise, (Hudson) entered a guilty plea,” the defense filing states.

The defense notes that a defendant does not have an “absolute right to withdraw” a guilty plea, but only “to correct manifest injustice. The filing defines a manifest injustice as “some fundamental flaw in the proceedings which results in a miscarriage of justice or is inconsistent with the demands of due process.”

It adds, “A guilty plea that was not entered knowingly, intelligently or voluntarily creates a manifest injustice that would entitle a defendant to withdraw that guilty plea.”

It quoted from a 2002 Ohio appeals court ruling that states that “When a trial court promises a certain sentence, the promise becomes an inducement to enter a plea, and unless that sentence is given, the plea is not voluntary. Accordingly, a trial court commits reversible error when it participates in plea negotiations but fails to impose the promised sentence.”

THE INCIDENT

The charges stemmed from the Sept. 29, 2023, drowning death of Hudson’s cousin’s child, Londyn A. Cayson, 2, in a swimming pool in the backyard of Hudson’s house on Ridgelawn Avenue in Youngstown.

According to a Youngstown police report, Hudson was watching Londyn when she realized the child was gone. Hudson said Londyn and another child were playing in the front yard as she was talking to another relative.

“She stated that after talking for a few minutes, they noticed that (Londyn) was missing. They went around the back of the house and found her floating in the pool,” the report states.

“She advised that about five minutes elapsed between when she saw (Londyn) playing and when they found her floating in the pool.” An ambulance took the child to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Officers learned later that the child died.

A juvenile advised police he had driven up to the home on Ridgelawn Avenue and saw the two toddlers playing in the front yard. He said he was talking to Adrianne Hudson for about five minutes when he realized one of the two children was missing.

He went around the house and saw what he thought was a baby doll in the pool. When he looked closer, he saw that it was a child and pulled her out of the water.