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Killeen babysitter won't serve jail time after guilty plea in death of baby

A Killeen babysitter who pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon received a sentence of 10 years deferred adjudication just hours later in a Bell County courtroom.

KILLEEN — A Killeen babysitter who plead guilty to a second degree felony charge of injury to a child Thursday will not serve any jail time.

A judge sentenced Rebecca Estrada, 30, to ten years of deferred adjudication, which is essentially probation. The sentence came just hours after Estrada plead guilty.

Estrada was babysitting Landon Rasmussen in January, 2017 when the boy was found unresponsive in a bathtub at a home on Taylor Renee Dr. in Killeen. The eight-month-old was taken to the hospital by first responders, but he died weeks later on Jan. 29.

District Attorney Henry Garza left the following statement:

Today, Rebecca Marie Estrada entered a plea of guilty to the second-degree felony of Injury to a Child by causing serious bodily injury by recklessly leaving Landon Rasmussen (eight-month-old infant) alone in a bathtub with water. This conduct resulted in his death.

Following the plea of guilty, the Court proceeded to sentencing. The State called several witnesses to testify in connection with the possible sentencing of Rebecca Marie Estrada. There was no plea agreement in this case and the Court had the possible range of punishment of from two to twenty years in the penitentiary.

Once the testimony was completed, the State argued that Rebecca Marie Estrada should be held accountable by serving time in the penitentiary for her actions that lead to the death of Landon Rasmussen. Defense counsel argued for probation.

Judge Gauntt sentenced Rebecca Marie Estrada to 10 years deferred Adjudication probation. Following the sentencing, family members presented an allocution stating how their lives have been completely destroyed due to the actions of Rebecca Marie Estrada.

Landon's grandmother, Erin Griffith said she never thought they would lose their grandson and that Estrada would only get probation.

"I really thought that she would get at least a couple years in prison, but nothing. It's really let us down," Griffith said.

In a Facebook post, Landon's mother, Destiny left the following response on the sentencing:

After a year and a half of waiting to get justice for my son Landon, Rebecca received 10 yrs probation. At this time I don't want to discuss what happened in that court room today. I need time to process this.

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