W. Va. woman goes to trial in toddler's Pa. hotel death

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A West Virginia woman has been ordered to stand trial on criminal homicide and other charges in the drowning death of her 2-year-old son inside a Pittsburgh-area hotel room earlier this month.

Sharon Flanagan has been in custody since July 2, a day after her 2-year-old son was found unconscious in a hotel bathtub in Green Tree. Steven Flanagan died July 6.

Allegheny County detectives testified today that the 33-year-old Inwood, W.Va. woman, gave inconsistent accounts of the incident, and couldn’t explain why she was unable to lift the boy — clad in swim trunks — out of a bathtub she had filled nearly to the brim.

Officials in West Virginia say Sharon Flanagan threatened to kill herself and the child in the past.

Her attorney has said Flanagan didn’t mean to harm her son.