The Court of Appeals in Iowa denied an appeal to overturn a 50-year prison sentence for a Pella woman who pled guilty to child endangerment resulting in death.

Anna Nicole Sothman, 32, received the sentence after she was implicated in the death of her 13-month-old daughter Elaine. Anna placed the young girl in a filled bathtub unsupervised for 30 to 40 minutes with running water on June 20th of 2016.

Sothman was appealing the denial of her application for post-conviction relief, citing her trial counsel was ineffective by providing misleading details about her potential sentence prior to the plea. The appeals court ruled that Sothman had not established a reasonable probability that she would have changed her plea if reviewing her decision had been conducted in open court rather than in the judge’s chambers.

Child endangerment resulting in death is a forcible felony under Iowa law, with a statutory sentence of fifty years in prison. Part of the original plea agreement was that after Sothman had been in prison for several months, she could file for reconsideration of her sentence and request a suspended sentence.

Soon after Sothman entered her plea, Marion County Attorney Ed Bull determined Sothman would not be eligible for a suspended sentence because her offense is a forcible felony. He offered to write a letter of recommendation to the parole board on Sothman’s behalf after she had served six months of her sentence if she decided to continue under the plea and proceed. Alternatively, the State would not resist if Sothman filed a motion in arrest of judgment and asked to withdraw her guilty plea.

According to court documents, Sothman’s counsel advised Sothman she “would be an excellent candidate for parole” but noted “there are no guarantees on either a motion to reconsider or parole request. The ultimate decision is out of your hands.” Sothman’s counsel also informed her she would immediately be eligible for parole, and individuals typically served an average of between four and five years on such a sentence.

Sothman was denied parole in her annual reviews in 2017 and 2018 due to the seriousness of her crime. On April 16, 2019, Sothman filed an application for post-conviction relief, and testified that she would not have accepted the plea agreement if she had understood it entailed years in prison. The court determined Sothman had the opportunity to change her plea before accepting the current sentence.