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HIGH LEVEL, Alta. — A woman in northern Alberta has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for neglecting to watch her baby girl who toppled into a batch of homebrew and drowned.

Viola Ribbonleg, 33, pleaded guilty earlier this year to criminal negligence causing death for failing to provide adequate care for 10-month-old Lexi.

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The judge took into account the woman’s background and recognized she didn’t actively endanger her child, defence lawyer Michael Nanooch said Tuesday.

“The child got out of the bed and fell accidentally into the bucket of brew,” he said.

“She was neglectful as a parent. She didn’t forcibly put the child in a situation where the accident occurred.”

MR. Nanooch said it also worked in Ribbonleg’s favour that she pleaded guilty.

“She took responsibility of what happened,” he said. “Denunciation wasn’t a factor [in the sentence].”

An agreed statement of facts filed in court says Ribbonleg’s son saw her and another man drinking brew in a trailer on the night of May 28, 2013, in Fox Lake, a community of about 2,000 that is part of the Little Red River Cree Nation.