Trempealeau Co. woman pleads not guilty in toddler’s death — (La Crosse Tribune)

Amanda Butts   An Osseo woman charged with killing a 22-month-old girl withdrew an insanity plea Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to first-degree reckless homicide, according to court records.

Amanda Butts, 23, will be tried later this year in Trempealeau County Circuit Court.

Butts is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the June 22 death of Alexis Behlke, her boyfriend’s daughter, by giving her Oxycodone and Benadryl.

Butts, who cared for the girl while her boyfriend was at work, told police the toddler had been whiny all day and wouldn’t sleep.

Behlke’s siblings told investigators they saw Butts throw the girl to the floor and push a pill down her throat, and that they saw her throw up, according to the complaint.

The Dane County medical examiner determined Behlke died from the combined effects of Oxycodone and the antihistamine diphenydramine as well as amitriptyline, an antidepressant, according to the complaint. His autopsy also revealed fractures in the girls left wrist as well as blood in her ear canals, which together are “consistent with assaultive, inflicted injury.”

Butts later admitted to investigators that she gave the girl one of her prescription Oxycodone pills, though she denied giving her Benadryl or amitriptyline. Butts said she put Behlke in the bathtub and ran cold water in an attempt to revive her and bruises on her face were a result of CPR efforts.