Bloomington couple put on probation in bathtub drowning of son

A Bloomington couple was sentenced to three years of probation in the drowning death of their 21-month-old son, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Eddy Pierre Louis and his wife, Sabina Pierre Louis, each pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree manslaughter in August. Hennepin County District Court Judge William Koch sentenced both of them Friday to 48 months in prison but stayed that sentence and put them on three years of probation. In addition, the judge sentenced them to 180 days on electronic home monitoring and they each must complete 150 hours of community service.

Prosecutors did not ask for a specific sentence except to say the couple should not be placed on probation. The sentence is less than the 48 months in prison that the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines called for so Judge Koch had to outline his reasons for giving a lesser sentence. He said the couple had shown remorse and accepted responsibility for their toddler’s death. They were amenable to probation, they had community support and the case was less onerous than other second-degree manslaughter cases, he said.

Eddy, 55, and Sabina, 26, left their apartment just before 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning in September 2019 and shopped at a Cub Foods and Walmart. With driving time, they were gone for nearly two hours, according to the complaint and their guilty pleas.

They left while their three children were asleep. However, when they returned home, the oldest child, a nine-year-old girl, was still asleep. The couple could hear their four-year-old in the bathroom and when they entered, they found the toddler floating in the tub.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office’s Child Protection Division had the two other children removed from the home and they are currently living with family friends. As part of the sentence, the couple must also engage in family therapy and complete a parenting class.