Former Eldorado woman's plea on hold
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Amanda Brooks Lay, accused in the death of her three-year-old son and severe injury of his twin sister in Evansville, Ind., entered a guilty plea in December but will not be sentenced until she testifies against her estranged husband Terry Lay, according to an article from the Evansville Courier-Press.
Amanda Brooks Lay, 34, and Terry Lay, 41, were accused of murder in connection with the death in March of Kalab Lay, who died of what Indiana authorities are calling extensive child abuse. Amanda Brooks Lay pleaded guilty to felony neglect in an Indiana court, but Judge Robert Pigman said Wednesday he will not accept the plea agreement and sentence her until she has cooperated with law enforcement and testified under the terms of the plea agreement. The deal includes a 35-year sentence to the Department of Corrections among its terms, according to the Courier-Press article.
The case is being handled in Clark County, Ind. rather than Vanderburgh County due to pretrial publicity.
"Because of the condition (in the agreement) she testify and cooperate in the case, we never assumed she would be sentenced today," Deputy Prosecutor Jonathan Parkhurst said, according to the Courier-Press account.
Kalab Lay and his siblings became wards of the court in Saline County after his parents were arrested in Eldorado on methamphetamine-related charges in 2004 and imprisoned. After their sentences were completed, the Lays moved to Evansville, Ind. Terry and Amanda Brooks Lay were granted an extended visit with Kalab Lay and his twin sister in December 2007 by Judge Todd Lambert. The extended visit in Evansville began Jan. 3, 2008 and ended three months later in tragedy. Kalab died in late March and his parents were arrested, charged with his murder by child abuse.
The circumstances surrounding Lambert's decision to grant an extended have been controversial. The Evansville Courier-Press reported July 16 the visit went against the recommendations of the Indiana Department of Child Services and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. However, a May 13 hearing in Saline County Circuit Court painted a different picture. A Lutheran Social Services caseworker told Lambert she recommended an extended visit between the twins and parents at an earlier hearing in November 2007. She testified sending the children back to their parents two-at-a-time would allow Lutheran Social Services to stay involved in the case and see how things are working. She also testified DCFS was not involved in the case when the visit was ordered.
Indiana authorities had denied an agreement under the Interstate Compact for Placement of Children that would have allowed extended visits, citing Terry Lay's criminal history, according to a June 25 Evansville Courier-Press article. The denial was one of the reasons the same LSS caseworker recommended foster care and possible termination of the Lays' parental rights in August 2007, the Courier-Press reported. But the LSS caseworker appears to have reversed herself by the November hearing when she recommended an extended visit.