MOM GETS JAIL TIME, PROBATION IN TODDLER'S DEATH GIRL DROWNED AFTER CAR GOT STUCK IN FLOODED WASH.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- A Lake Los Angeles woman was sentenced Monday to two months in jail for endangering her three children by driving around barricades into a storm-swollen wash, resulting in the drowning of her 2-year-old daughter.

Sheshe Myesha Wilson, 36, also known as Tonie Myesha Davis, also was placed on four years' probation.

"This is more a tragedy than an accident," said Wilson's attorney, Bryant Calloway. "There is no question that she is a good mother."

Monday's sentencing was the result of a plea agreement announced in November. Prosecutors said Wilson would serve the 60 days in Los Angeles County jail first and then be formally sentenced to ensure that she served the entire two-month term.

Jail overcrowding has resulted in an early release of inmates.

But on Monday, Calloway said prosecutors agreed to have Wilson sentenced Monday because she has children with health problems.

"The D.A.'s Office agreed to do that. She's got children with health issues that she takes care of," Calloway said.

Deputy District Attorney Valerie Little declined to comment on the case. Wilson will surrender Friday to begin serving her jail time.

Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse after prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second felony child-abuse count.

Wilson drove her SUV around two sets of "road closed" barriers during a torrential Jan. 9, 2005, storm and into fast-moving water where normally dry Little Rock Wash crosses Avenue N, officials said.

Little Jamaia Davis fell into the flooded desert wash while a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter was rescuing the family members from their Ford Escape, which was nearly submerged.

The toddler's lifeless body was found a mile or two downstream.

Little said previously that Wilson, the toddler, and Wilson's two other children, a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, had climbed on the vehicle's roof after it got stuck in the fast-moving water.

A CHP officer and road workers in a county truck, then firefighters in a fire engine, were unable to get through the water, though they could hear the family screaming, authorities said.

A Fire Department helicopter, whose crew had already rescued more than two dozen storm victims elsewhere around the county that day, began lifting people off the car, fire officials said.

There have been conflicting accounts of how the toddler fell into the water. Little had said earlier that Wilson fell off the top of the car and lost hold of the toddler.

Calloway said rescue workers bumped into Wilson, and the toddler was knocked out of her mother's arms.

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