By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 26-year-old Maylene woman will spend the next 20 years in prison beginning in January, after she pleaded guilty on Dec. 7 to causing the death of her infant son in a car fire in Alabaster in 2014.

Sommer Nicole Wilford pleaded guilty to a reckless murder charge a few days before her trial was scheduled to begin in Shelby County Circuit Court, and her sentence will begin following a Jan. 8 hearing at 10:30 a.m. in front of Circuit Court Judge William Bostick. She could have faced up to life in prison for the reckless murder charge.

Although Wilford entered her guilty plea on Dec. 7, her plea was not made public in court records until Dec. 11.

Wilford’s reckless murder charge came in the wake of a Feb. 28, 2014, vehicle crash near the intersection of Alabama 119 and Kent Dairy Road in Alabaster.

According to Alabaster Police, when officers arrived on the scene of the crash, they found Wilford “standing outside the vehicle that was engulfed in flames.” After Alabaster firefighters extinguished the fire, they discovered the body of 19-month-old Jayden Allen inside the vehicle.

Prosecutors have claimed Wilford was under the influence of drugs when the crash occurred.

Wilford was released from the Shelby County Jail on March 20, 2014, after multiple individuals put their properties up as collateral on her $300,000 bond.

Between Dec. 7 and Jan. 8, Wilford must “enroll with and cooperate with” the pretrial release program, and report in-person to the Alabaster Police Department every 72 hours between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.