FAIRBANKS — A North Pole woman whose toddler son died of blunt force trauma has been sentenced to four years in prison, followed by five years of probation.

Amberlynn Swanson in March pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the death of 18-month-old Julian Swanson-Byrd, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle sentenced Swanson, 26, to six years in prison with two suspended. Swanson, Lyle said, had made “terrible choices.”

“Her involvement in the drug culture and her use of drugs is what ultimately led to the death of her son,” Lyle said. “She failed to get help for her child when any person not involved in drugs would have done exactly the opposite of what she chose to do.”

Swanson on Dec. 1, 2013, took her son’s body to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. She told hospital staff she fell asleep in her vehicle and that a passenger-side window had been rolled down. She said she woke up to find the boy on the ground outside. She claimed he died the day before.

According to Alaska State Troopers, hospital staff determined the boy had been dead for longer than one day. An autopsy revealed extensive bruising, and the state medical examiner concluded that he died of blunt force trauma.

Swanson’s boyfriend, Robert “Lincoln” Croskrey, in March 2015, pleaded guilty to failure to report a violent crime against a child and agreed to testify against Swanson. He was sentenced to a year in jail.

Swanson has been jailed at Fairbanks Correctional Center since December 2013. With time off for good behavior, she could be released in early September.

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