Woman given probation, SES for role in death of infant in 2015 after using meth

During Ozark County Law Day Nov. 8, Gainesville resident Sondra F. Clark, 41, pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to an amended charge of involuntary manslaughter involving death of a 3-month-old baby in 2015. Clark refers to the baby as her great niece in the plea agreement document. 

In return for her guilty plea, she was sentenced to 5 years supervised probation with a 7-year SES (suspended execution of sentence). 

The SES does not mean that Clark will go to prison in the case. Instead, the probation serves as the immediate punishment. The 7-year sentence acts as a sort of “back up” sentence which the judge could execute and send Clark to prison if she violates her probation enough times. 

The online docket says that the prosecutor attempted to reach the family of the baby who died to confer with them on the plea agreement. The mother was agreeable to the plea agreement, and the father could not be reached, online records say. 

The conditions of her probation include: paying $300 to the Ozark County law enforcement restitution fund, pay her outstanding balance to Court Probationary Services, obey all laws, not use illegal drugs or cannabis products, submit to random drug testing or searches as requested by her probation officer or law enforcement, not be unsupervised in the presence of a minor child younger than 12 and follow all other standard conditions of probation. 

Clark was represented by public defender Bethany Turner. The state was represented by Ozark County Prosecuting Attorney Lee Pipkins.

Clark was indicted last November by an Ozark County grand jury with the charge of second-degree murder in connection with the 2015 death of the infant. 

According to the probable cause statement prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman, the department received a phone call on Aug. 26, 2015, on the dispatch’s 911 line reporting that an infant, identified as M.P. in the court documents, was unresponsive. The child was pronounced dead that day, and an investigation into the death was opened by the sheriff’s department. The cause of the death was later determined as arrhythmia due to hypoxia, or an irregular heartbeat that lead to low levels of oxygen in the baby’s body tissues, causing changes in breathing and heart rate. 

The Ozark County Sheriff’s Department’s administration at the time under the direction of former Sheriff Darrin Reed determined through an interview with Clark that she was babysitting and taking care of the infant. She said she picked the baby up the night before and was watching her that day. 

Clark reportedly told officers that while she was babysitting she was under the influence of drugs. A toxicology analysis confirmed that Clark was under the influence of a methamphetamine at the time, the report says.

Officers were told that Clark had the baby sleeping in bed with her at some time during the night while she was under the influence of drugs. 

“While in a drug-inducted state, Sondra rolled over while sleeping on the infant, which resulted in the unresponsiveness and ultimate death of the infant. The interviews that were conducted at the time under the 2015 Ozark County Sheriff Department Administration present an environment, from various statements, that Sondra was in the direct control of the deceased infant while consuming drugs…which resulted in the a life-threatening environment. It was reported from others and Sondra that she had made a stop at an undisclosed location after she took custody, care and control of [the infant] prior to returning to her residence in Udall,” the report says.