Toddler found dead after dad pulled from submerged truck, IN cops say. Dad sentenced
_fitted.png "Emma Sweet was found about 3 miles downriver from where her father was pulled from his partially submerged truck, Indiana cops said.")
An Indiana father has been sentenced to 40 years in prison in connection to the 2021 drowning death of his 2-year-old daughter, according to news reports.
Jeremy Sweet, 41, of Columbus, pleaded guilty June 11 to neglect of a dependent resulting in death, according to court records.
Sweet and his 2-year-old daughter, Emma, went missing on Nov. 25, 2021, McClatchy News previously reported.
Duck hunters found Sweet the next day inside his truck partially submerged in White River with hypothermia, but Emma was still missing, McClatchy News reported.
The toddler’s body was found a couple of days later by the Bartholomew County Water Rescue and Recovery Team, about 3 miles downriver from where her dad’s truck was found, authorities said.
“This is a very heart-wrenching situation,” Sweet’s attorney Andrew C. Maternowski told McClatchy News in a statement June 13, 2024.
“Mr. Sweet fully recognized and accepted his culpability in the unintended and accidental, but negligent, death of his daughter. That is why he plead guilty and accepted a very long sentence. As the judge stated in court, Mr. Sweet is remorseful and he recognized that there was nothing he could do or say to change the pain and suffering he caused,” Maternowski said.
The Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office said Emma died of “complications of hypothermia and asphyxia due to drowning,” the Indy Star reported in 2022.
“There’s nothing I can say to change what has happened,” Sweet said at his sentencing hearing, The Republic reported.
Sweet told authorities he had taken methamphetamine and smoked marijuana before picking up Emma from her mother’s house on Thanksgiving Day, the outlet reported.
Authorities said Sweet gave multiple conflicting stories about what happened that day, WXIN reported.
In one account, Sweet told investigators he put Emma on the roof alone after the truck went into the water, WRTV reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.
He said he fell asleep and when he woke up, his daughter was gone, the station reported.
“It’s a senseless, tragic loss of life,” Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton said at the sentencing hearing, The Republic reported.
Sweet was also charged with unlawful possession of a syringe and sentenced as a habitual offender, according to court records.
This story was originally published June 13, 2024 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Toddler found dead after dad pulled from submerged truck, IN cops say. Dad sentenced."
