Staff photo / Ed Runyan Adrianne L. Hudson, 33, stood for a brief hearing before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney Thursday. Sweeney set a trial for Hudson for May 18. Hudson was allowed to withdraw an earlier guilty plea.

YOUNGSTOWN — Adrianne L. Hudson, 33, who was allowed last month to rescind her guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangering in the drowning death of a child in her care in 2023, is now set for trial May 18.

During a short hearing Thursday, her attorney, Lou DeFabio, verified with Hudson that she was going to keep him and attorney Tom Zena on the case for her.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney announced that Hudson’s new trial date is May 18.

Sweeney then said, “There will be no other pretrials or hearings on this matter because I am not going to bring the victims back for absolutely no reason just to traumatize them, which was their problem last time.”

That was apparently a reference to Hudson pleading guilty to the charges in August and being sentenced in October, when the child’s mother gave an emotional statement in court. She cried as she told what Hudson’s actions had taken from her and other family members — the life of her 2-year-old daughter, Londyn Cayson.

“I hope I never see you again,” the child’s mother said to Hudson.

Attorneys for Hudson asked Sweeney in October to allow Hudson to rescind her guilty pleas, and Sweeney granted the motion last month and ordered Hudson released from the state penitentiary where she had been since Sweeney sentenced her to 6 to 9 years in prison.

DeFabio and Zena argued in their filing that because Sweeney promised DeFabio and Zena that she would give Hudson a 5-year sentence during negotiations for a plea agreement and then sentenced Hudson to something higher, 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 defense filing 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 Cayson, 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.

Hudson has remained free since she left prison.