Left: Ceianna Buchanan was 6 days old when she died March 8. Her mother, a Milwaukee child-care worker, was charged Tuesday in her death. Center: Brianna Buchanan-Prescott died while sleeping with her mother last year. Right: Cierra Buchanan died while co-sleeping with her grandmother in 1993.

SHARE Fatal Care: Fostering reform in child welfare For complete archived coverage of the story of the death of 13-month-old Christopher L. Thomas Jr. and its catalyst for change in the child welfare bureau, click here.

By of the

A Milwaukee child-care worker who police say was too drunk to remember putting her infant daughter to sleep on a couch was charged Tuesday with killing the 6-day-old baby.

Rose Prescott, 30, told police it was possible she fell asleep on the couch with her daughter, Ceianna Buchanan, according to a criminal complaint charging Prescott with second-degree reckless homicide.

Ceianna's alleged homicide on March 8 was the third co-sleeping death in her immediate family.

Prescott's 2-month-old daughter, Brianna Buchanan-Prescott, died while sleeping with Prescott on April 17, 2008.

Ceianna and Brianna's 5-month-old half-sister, Cierra Buchanan, died while co-sleeping with Cierra's grandmother in 1993.

Shortly after Ceianna's death, the Journal Sentinel reported that the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare was aware of Brianna's death under similar circumstances less than a year before.

When the newspaper asked what services the bureau provided to Ceianna's family, child welfare officials said state confidentiality laws prevented them from commenting because no one had been charged with a crime.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Children and Families said Tuesday that, now that abuse had been confirmed, the agency was preparing a public report.

According to the complaint filed in Ceianna's death, Prescott told police that on March 7 she drank a half-liter of Bacardi Rum Hurricane between 3:15 and 10 p.m. She told police she took Ceianna to a baby sitter, then went to a family cookout, where she continued to drink.

Prescott told police she remembers picking Ceianna up from the baby sitter.

"Ms. Prescott could not recall what transpired beyond that point in time," the complaint says.

"Specifically, Ms. Prescott could not remember arriving home, parking the car, or coming up the stairs of her residence," the complaint says.

Prescott gave investigators conflicting reports of what happened next.

She told an investigator she put Ceianna face up on one side of the couch, put a toddler on the other end of the couch and then slept on the floor.

Investigators noted there were no pillows or blankets on the floor.

Prescott told another investigator that she was drunk, and that it was possible she fell asleep on the couch with Ceianna.

The complaint says Prescott found Ceianna facing the back cushion of the couch and not breathing. Prescott's car keys were found beneath the child's body.

According to the autopsy report, Ceianna died of "asphyxia due to suffocation due to overlaying by adult during co-sleeping on couch."

Her sister, Brianna, died of "sudden unexpected death in infancy with co-sleeping listed as a significant condition," the complaint says. Prescott also had been drinking the night Brianna died, the complaint says.

"At this time, the Department of Children and Families has no information that this tragic death was the result of child abuse or neglect," the DCF had said in statement issued shortly after Ceianna's death. "Therefore, by law, we cannot address any previous history that family may or may not have had with any child protective service agency."

Their half-sibling, Cierra, died while sleeping in a bed with their grandmother and a 7-year-old relative.

The Journal Sentinel also reported in March that Prescott appears to have provided Milwaukee County with bogus employment information to qualify six of her children for taxpayer-financed child care at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1,300 a week.

After the death of Ceianna in March, Prescott was employed at various day care centers. She was laid off in September from Ne-Ne's Child Care Center on N. Palmer St., according to documents obtained Tuesday by the Journal Sentinel.

The director of the center, Arnitra Swain, said in a letter to county regulators that state regulators insisted Prescott be laid off pending a criminal background check.

Prescott was scheduled to make her initial court appearance Wednesday.

Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.