The grandmother and mother of a baby which died in a hot car while his carers smoked drugs have been jailed for three years.
Three family members were this morning in the High Court at Rotorua before Justice Graham Lang.
Isaiah Neil (also known as Te Whetu) was 8 months old when he died after being left in a hot car, while his parents and grandmother smoked synthetic cannabis and passed out at Taneatua in 2015.
The boy's parents Lacey Te Whetu and Shane Neil pleaded guilty on April 27 to manslaughter and grandmother Donna Parangi was last month found guilty of the manslaughter after a six-day jury trial.
Parangi and Te Whetu were sentenced to three years imprisonment - with no minimum term of imprisonment imposed.
Lawson said Te Whetu had never shied away from her responsibility and did everything she could once she came out of her drug-induced sleep, including accepting she was at fault for Isaiah's death.
"This has been an event that has entirely turned [Te Whetu's] life around... she is no longer taking synthetic cannabis and is working hard to regain the trust of the authorities so she can be a mother again."
Throughout her lawyer's submission Te Whetu shook and cried in the dock.
Parangi's lawyer Susan Gray said the grandmother caused harm by omission, not commission.
It was not premeditated but inadvertent.
Donna Parangi.
However, Justice Lang pointed out it was "prolonged" inadvertance. "This isn't 10 or 15 minutes, it was three hours... for three hours, nobody went to check on the baby."
Gray said Parangi maintained care was taken to keep Isaiah comfortable and partook in smoking cannabis when she thought the baby was inside.
"Her remorse is genuine, she will live with the consequences of this day for the rest of her life... she will be punished for her actions of that day for the rest of her life."
She said it had had a severe impact on Parangi's heath - both mentally and physically.
"She has been a caring mother, a caring grandmother and a hard working woman all her life. Her losses have been immense, enormous."
Neil's lawyer Roger Laybourn said no child should go through what Isaiah went through and Neil said he would "ask the question for the rest of his life why he did not call emergency services."
Shane Neil.
Experts believed the temperature in the car would have been as high as 45C for between 90 minutes and two hours.
There are no minimum sentences for manslaughter cases, which means judges can impose sentences that differ depending on the circumstances.
Two years ago, a health professional in Whanganui was discharged without conviction after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of her 16-month-old son.
She accidentally left him in the car in January 2015 and he died of dehydration and heatstroke.
