More than five years after her son, 4, was found unresponsive in Robinson Lake, Tammarashae Jones avoided prison for leaving him with his developmentally delayed teen uncle.
She signed a plea deal in January 2023 for neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a Level 5 felony. Jones was sentenced Friday to three years in Lake County’s Community Corrections Program and another three years probation.
She declined to speak in court.
It was an “opportunity to put this behind you,” Judge Pro Tempore Matt Fech told her near the hearing’s end.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal said there were “evidentiary issues” and she was “still getting a substantial sentence.” The case was an “extremely tragic situation,” she said.
Defense lawyer Mike Woods agreed, saying holes in the case could have been “avenues of defense,” but it was too risky to go to trial.
There was “substantial risk for both (sides),” he said.
Her sentencing was delayed by an unrelated case that has since been dismissed.
Court records show her son David Flemister, 4, went around 11 a.m. or noon on July 9, 2019 with a group of boys to the Salvation Army, 4800 Harrison Street in Gary.
Later that day, after they didn’t come back, she asked her sister, who hadn’t seen them. Jones didn’t call the developmentally disabled boy, 15, the only one in the group with a cell phone.
The kids went to Robinson Lake around 3 p.m for about two hours. When other boys got out of the water, Flemister was missing. His cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning.