A Toronto mother who drowned her 4-year-old autistic child in a bathtub pleaded guilty to manslaughter Tuesday and was sentenced to three years’ probation and time served.
“I want another baby. I won’t kill another baby, I won’t,” said Xuan (Linda) Peng, 38, almost inaudibly, as she cried loudly when given the opportunity to address the court after pleading guilty.
Justice Ian Nordheimer agreed to a plea agreement arranged by Peng’s lawyers and Crown prosecutors. Peng is to be released Tuesday afternoon, giving her two-for-one credit for the 30 months she has already spent behind bars, the equivalent of a five-year sentence.
Peng was arrested in February 2005 and accused of drowning her autistic daughter, Scarlett Chen, seven months after the child was found lifeless in the bathtub of the family’s Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. townhouse.
The Toronto mother was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
That conviction was quashed last year in a unanimous decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which ordered a new trial.
The appeal court found the original trial judge erred in her instructions to the jury regarding the testimony of a pathologist, “effectively precluding” the jurors from considering a manslaughter verdict.
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