A 27-year-old Zuni woman has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of her 2-month-old daughter, who died after her mother rolled over on top of her while nursing the infant in bed. Miranda Cachini will also face three years of supervised release once she leaves prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Cachini was accused of drinking alcohol on the night of January 25, 2025, before falling asleep while nursing her daughter and rolling over her. Federal authorities said the infant died by asphyxiation as a result. As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, Cachini had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the case earlier this year. Neither court records nor the news release identified the child by name.
In her plea agreement, Cachini wrote that she unconsciously rolled over her daughter, causing her death by asphyxiation. She said her alcohol consumption contributed to co-sleeping with the infant, and that rolling on top of her is what caused the asphyxiation. Per the same agreement, Cachini stated that her drinking and co-sleeping with her infant daughter were done without due caution and circumspection.
A Pint of Vodka After a Year Sober
Prosecutors said Cachini told authorities she drank a pint of Importer's vodka that night after more than a year of sobriety, and that she recorded just over 0.08 on a breathalyzer, the Albuquerque Journal's report notes. Authorities also said they found alcohol bottles, cannabis and a white powdery substance in the room where Cachini had been sleeping. The outlet's account states that Cachini's attorney argued she should not be sent to prison because she had taken responsibility in the case.
Requests for comment from Cachini's attorney were not answered Friday, per the Santa Fe New Mexican. The initial charge brought against Cachini was abuse of a child resulting in death under a reckless-disregard theory, according to an indictment filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, before she agreed to plead guilty to the lesser involuntary manslaughter charge in a deal with prosecutors.
New Mexico's Broader Safe-Sleep Problem
Cachini's case lands amid a documented pattern of preventable infant deaths tied to unsafe sleep environments across New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Health recommends placing babies on their backs on a firm, flat surface free of toys, pillows, blankets and crib bumpers, and warns that bedsharing significantly raises a baby's risk of injury or death. The department also reports that an average of 20 infants died each year from sleep-related causes in New Mexico between 2018 and 2022.
A New Mexico Child Fatality Review of 30 sudden unexpected infant death cases in 2022 found that 19 of those deaths could have been prevented had safe infant sleep practices been followed, the health department says. Separately, Safe Sleep New Mexico reports that the state recorded 137 sleep-related infant deaths from 2015 through 2020 — an average of one every 23 days — and that 86% of those deaths were identified as preventable, according to the group's public data page.
Nationally, the pattern holds too. Most sudden unexpected infant deaths between 2020 and 2024 were classified in a category indicating unsafe sleep factors were present in the sleep environment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency's sudden unexpected infant death rate encompasses sudden infant death syndrome, cases of unknown cause, and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed.
