Police: Boy Dead After Being Found Under Mom

INDIANAPOLIS -- A 2-year-old boy was pronounced dead after he was found beneath his passed-out mother -- who investigators say admitted she'd been drinking -- in an Indianapolis motel room early Wednesday, according to police.

Latasha McMorris' boyfriend found the two on the floor of an EconoLodge motel room on North Shadeland Avenue and, noticing that the boy wasn't breathing, called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., police said.

The boy, Sheldon Bartley Jr., was taken to Community East Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 a.m., police said.

McMorris (pictured), who last year was convicted of child neglect and temporarily lost custody of the boy, was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge of neglect. Police said the boy may have suffocated, and that McMorris, 24, may have been under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs when she passed out.

Police said they are treating the case as a homicide. An autopsy was planned Wednesday.

"Whether she had done any harm to the child before or ... just passed out and smothered him, we're waiting for that to be determined, hopefully through the coroner's report," Indianapolis police Sgt. Matt Mount said.

An officer found bottles of gin and vodka in the motel room, according to a police report. The boy's paternal grandmother, Sandra Page, told 6News that McMorris had been scheduled to start rehab in Bloomington on Wednesday.

"It was supposed to be this morning that she was supposed to go in," Page said.

Woman Was Facing Probation-Violation Hearing

McMorris was convicted of child neglect last year after police found Bartley, then 20 months old, and his 6-year-old sister playing in a street in July. Child welfare workers temporarily removed the children from her custody, police said.

According to a police report in that incident, McMorris' father told investigators she had a serious drinking problem.

McMorris received a suspended one-year prison sentence. Afterward, she was accused of violating terms of her probation by failing to provide urine samples, testing positive for alcohol, failing to maintain a job, failing to perform community service and being arrested on suspicion of public intoxication.

A hearing on the probation-violation allegations had been set for Friday.

Before the child neglect conviction, McMorris had been convicted of criminal trespass and failing to stop for an accident.

Information on whether she had legal custody of the boy when he died wasn't available.

The Department of Child Services said Wednesday it was trying to determine "the complete extent of this child's involvement with the department."

"DCS will conduct a complete and intensive review to verify all information and facts. We are limited by law to the information we can share now and will be working with the court to share our findings and to make those available to the public," the department said in an e-mailed statement.

Stay with 6News and TheIndyChannel.com for updates.