On Tuesday, appearing by video, Bean blotted away tears as her attorney, Chad Wythers, spoke on her behalf.

"I don't think any sentence that this court could impose is going to change in any way the heartbreak and sorrow suffered by a mother who is standing here today," the defense attorney said. "It's a tragedy, and everybody knows that."

He argued for probation, saying Bean was sorry for her horrible choices.

"Nothing anybody does is going to bring her son back," Wythers said.

He said he shared the opinion of the expert he retained, Dr. Matthias Okoye, that nothing likely could've been done to change the outcome, that Axel likely died because of complications at birth.

On the other side, Prenda called it a "predictable event to the extent that someone was going to get hurt from her abuse of alcohol, whether it was her children or someone in the community."

He said Bean had a problem abusing alcohol before this and got picked up for driving under the influence of alcohol afterward.

Prenda acknowledged there were different opinions on the cause of Axel's death, but said he was struck by the fact that the doctor at his birth, in the records, gave no indication it was anything but normal.