Tanya Bane sentenced to five years
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| Tanya Bane was arrested last October and charged with child neglect after the her 13-month-old child drowned in the bathtub. |
Tanya Elaine Bane is awaiting transfer from the Rockbridge Regional Jail to the state prison system.
Bane, 37, was sentenced Sept. 15 to five years in prison for felony child neglect that resulted in the death of her 13-month-old infant son in October 2007. She has already served eight months of the sentence while awaiting trial.
At Bane’s sentencing proceeding before Rockbridge Circuit Judge Michael Irvine, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney James Maxwell summarized the events of the afternoon of Oct. 9, when Bane’s son, Peter Dameron Stearns, died. Maxwell said the infant had been left unattended in a bathtub with his 2-year-old sibling in their home at 800 McCorkle Drive.
Bane told police she found the infant floating face down in the tub and his sibling running through the house. She said she first attempted infant CPR before driving the child to Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital, while calling 911. The infant was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after arrival.
A police officer reported that he could smell what he believed to be marijuana on Bane as she spoke to him at the hospital. Police searched the house later that afternoon and found two cigarettes containing a mixture of crack cocaine and marijuana. Bane admitted to having smoked crack cocaine at 2 o’clock the previous morning.
Bane stood before Irvine and simply shook her head when asked by the judge if she had anything to say before he pronounced sentence. Irvine noted that the incident was the direct result of Bane’s irresponsible behavior.
Maxwell was dismissive of a plea for leniency from Bane’s attorney, James Dungan. Maxwell called the infant’s death a “tragedy of her own making and a tragedy she created and did so with prior knowledge.”
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