'Vodka mom' who suffocated three-week-old baby after rolling onto him as they slept burns herself to death after weeks of condemnation

Toni Medrano drank a bottle of vodka before falling asleep next to son

Suffocated him in the night and only realised hours later



Nancy Grace decried her carelessness in scathing segment on TV show

Medrano set herself alight with flammable liquid and died of injuries



A mother who became known as 'Vodka mom' after passing out drunk and rolling onto her three-day-old son, suffocating him, has burned herself to death after weeks of condemnation.

Toni Annette Medrano, 29, became the subject of hate after Nancy Grace decried the mother's carelessness on her cable television talk show last month.

She died of injuries after using a flammable liquid to set herself on fire in the backyard of a home in St. Paul Park, Minnesota last Monday. The exact cause of her death is under investigation.

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Suicide: Toni Medrano (left) has died after setting herself on fire. She had been charged with manslaughter in the death of her newborn son Adrian (right) after suffocating him as they slept on the couch



She had been charged with manslaughter in the death of her newborn son, Adrian, whom she allegedly rolled onto as they slept on the couch in her home in Cottage Grove in November 2011.

She had drank an entire fifth of vodka when she fell asleep on the couch with the boy between her and the back cushions.

Throughout the night she woke to feed the newborn and left the couch to get formula at around 3am.



She then drifted in and out of sleep, without getting up again, as her other children got ready for school, Pioneer Press reported.



Alcohol fueled: Medrano had drunk a fifth of vodka before she suffocated her son last November



Innocent: The three-week-old baby was purple when she woke up and realised she had rolled on him

At 10.30 a.m. she realised Adrian was cold and purple and screamed to her husband Jason: 'The baby is dead!'

Mr Medrano had warned his wife that she risked suffocating the infant if she slept with him on the couch, according to the St Paul Star Tribune.



NANCY GRACE DETAILS THE CASE

Nearly shouting on her cable television show, Nancy Grace described the events:

'Did mommy booze it up and kill her baby? 'The mother spent the weekend drinking. She's waking up and she is so drunk off a fifth of vodka she doesn't even know her baby is laying there - dead - beside her. 'This woman laid on top of this baby for hours. It had been dead for hours. 'Isn't it true that she stated that she had been drinking the entire time and that she had other children in the home? In fact, the other children wondered about the baby, and didn't realise he was dead?

'There was a long period of time that her baby could have been - could have been - saved.'

When she found Adrian unresponsive, the pair called 911 and tried to revive their baby. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury.



The official cause of death was ruled 'asphyxia due to being laid upon while sleeping with an adult' by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's office.

Medrano was tested and found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.11.

When the story featured on Nancy Grace, the host condemned the 29-year-old mother, showing that the amount she had drunk prior to the death was equal to 17 drinks containing vodka.

'She's waking up and she is so drunk off a fifth of vodka she doesn't even know her baby is laying there dead beside her,' Grace said, nearly yelling.

'There was a long period of time that her baby could have been saved.'

A doctor on the show noted that the baby had probably been dead for hours when he was discovered as he was purple - a sign that blood is pooling in the body. This takes hours, he said.

Nancy Grace added that the mother had a history of heavy drinking, with two DWIs in a single month.

Warnings: Medrano's husband Jason had warned her about the dangers of sleeping next to their son

Ridicule: Nancy Grace featured the story on her show last month, branding her 'Vodka Mom'

After featuring on the show, Medrano became the subject of condemnation on blogs and social networking sites.

Medrano faced two counts of second-degree manslaughter, one charge for 'culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk' and a second for 'committing or attempting to commit a violation'.



If she had been convicted, she would have faced up to 10 years in prison.



Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said after the death of her son: 'Irrespective of the ultimate outcome in this matter, I hope that valuable lessons can be learned from these very tragic circumstances.'

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