Smithville woman sentenced for child’s 2021 death

SMITHVILLE, Mo. — A Smithville, Missouri woman charged in a 2021 child endangerment case, leading to a child’s death, has been sentenced.

Karen Vice, 55, was sentenced to two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

According to court records, judgement for restitution in the sum of $10,000 shall be paid to the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office to the child victim’s biological parents for grief or psychological counseling along with $75 admin fee assessed.

Vice was charged in January of 2022 with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, causing the child’s death.

The Clay County prosecutor’s indictment, obtained by FOX4 in 2022, did not say how old the child was or how they died. It does say Vice failed to “maintain a safe sleeping environment” for the child on Feb. 12, 2021.

The court also sentenced Vice to the Shock Incarceration Program.

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