The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected a Des Moines man’s bid to get out of jail quicker after being convicted of leaving his baby girl in a bathtub, unattended, where she died. On February 13, 2003, David Petithory was high on meth when he put his one-year-old baby girl in a running bathtub. He feel asleep and woke up to find the baby face down in the overflowing tub. She died just over a month later. Petithory was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, neglect of a dependent person and domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Petithory appealed, complaining he shouldn’t have been convicted of child neglect for the care he gave the dead baby and his three-year-old daughter. The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected that argument, and ruled it’s only “common sense” to conclude Petithory’s daily meth use exposed his two daughters to danger. The court’s ruling put it this way: “Russian roulette is dangerous each time it is played, not just when someone has his head blown off,” and although danger was not realized until the baby wound up unattended in the bathtub, “tragedy was waiting to happen.”
