Mother changes plea in daughter’s death

Frontiersman

PALMER — A Wasilla mother, charged with murder when her 8-week-old daughter died from asphyxiation, has entered an alcohol treatment program and will plead no contest this week to one count of manslaughter.

Kimberly Dubie, 32, was arrested Feb. 27, 2007, after a state medical examiner’s report showed her daughter had died of positional asphyxiation due to the position in which she sat, according to court documents. At the time of the baby’s death, Dubie’s blood alcohol content was .24, or three times the legal limit for driving.

Friday, Dubie appeared via telephone as her lawyer, Bill Carey, asked that she be allowed to live with her aunt in Anchorage before changing her plea from not guilty to no contest.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat did not oppose Carey’s request.

Dubie was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the case. Carey told Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler that Dubie had completed the first stage of substance abuse treatment in Anchorage.

“Kim has done great at the facility,” Carey said.

Generally, he said, the next step is for the patient to live unsupervised. In this case, though, given the charges she faces, that would be inappropriate, Carey said.

Cutler expressed concern at having Dubie, as was originally planned, stay out of jail for four weeks while she waits to change her plea.

“I don’t mean to be a nervous Nellie,” Cutler said, but, “I’m not getting enough report on Kimberly’s progress in the treatment program, at least not enough to know that there won’t be a one-woman pity party [before she goes to jail].”

She asked that lawyers come up with an earlier date. All eventually agreed that Dubie would change her plea Jan. 18. Until then, she will live with her aunt.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.