Prosecutors said 4-year-old Zoey Chafer died after alcohol was put into the feeding tube she relied on for food and water.

HAYWARD, Wis. — A Sawyer County judge sentenced Samantha S. Smith to 15 years in prison and five years of supervised release after prosecutors said her 4-year-old daughter, Zoey Chafer, died in 2021 with a blood alcohol level of .572 after alcohol was fed through the child’s tube.

The sentencing put a prison term on one of the most disturbing child-death cases in northern Wisconsin, but it did not close the matter entirely. Smith, now 30, entered a plea deal in November that let her avoid trial on a first-degree intentional homicide count while still allowing the judge to consider it at sentencing. Her boyfriend, Domenic Falkner, has already resolved his own case and is scheduled to be sentenced next. The case has also fed a wider fight over whether suspected physical abuse should have been sent to police sooner.

Zoey died on July 28, 2021, after emergency crews were called to an apartment in the 15000 block of West 2nd Street in Hayward for a report that a 4-year-old could not be awakened. Medics found the girl unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead. At first, authorities did not order a full autopsy, but the Sawyer County coroner drew blood. Testing by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene found an alcohol concentration of .572 g/100 mL, according to the criminal complaint. That finding changed the course of the investigation. Zoey’s body was exhumed, and a later autopsy ruled her death a homicide caused by acute ethanol toxicity. The medical examiner wrote that ethanol in a child who could not walk or feed herself was consistent with intentional administration by another.

Investigators said the girl’s medical condition made the evidence especially stark. Zoey had severe cerebral palsy from birth. Records described her as nonverbal, non-ambulatory and immobile. She used a specialized wheelchair and depended on a feeding tube for nutrition and hydration. Detectives said Smith told them she was usually the one who gave Zoey medication, while both Smith and Falkner said they were the only adults in the home during the night or early morning before the child’s death. They also acknowledged they handled the feeding tube when Zoey was in their care. Falkner, who moved in during August 2020, had also been approved as a paid caregiver through Sawyer County Human Services. Authorities said that meant the two adults at the apartment were not only caretakers by circumstance, but by formal arrangement.

The criminal case grew beyond the final night. Court records and earlier reporting described a long trail of injuries before Zoey died. In August 2020, her father reported bruising on Zoey’s face and on one arm of Zoey’s sibling after the children had been in Smith and Falkner’s care. Medical visits in October 2020 documented fractures, bruising and swelling. A November follow-up found a new fracture. A skeletal survey in December 2020 found multiple healing fractures. New fractures were again documented in January, May and June 2021. School staff photographed bruising in April 2021, and a July 12, 2021, medical visit recorded facial and cranial bruising and swelling. Genetic testing, investigators said, found no genetic reason for the broken bones. Doctors who reviewed the records, along with an outside child-abuse expert, concluded the injuries were consistent with abuse.

Smith’s plea agreement reshaped the legal path without erasing the most serious allegation. She pleaded guilty to chronic neglect of a child and no contest to repeated physical abuse of a child causing great bodily harm. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the intentional homicide charge but had it read in for sentencing, allowing the court to weigh it. Falkner’s case ended differently. He resolved his charges in September 2025 with pleas that left the homicide count dismissed and sentencing still ahead. In 2022, the two defendants were held on sharply different cash bonds, with Falkner at $2 million and Smith at $1 million. The civil fallout also continued after Zoey’s estate sued county and child-welfare officials in federal court in 2023. That case was later terminated.

For Zoey’s family, the sentence lands after years of arguing that warning signs were missed. Her father, Michael Chafer, told local television in earlier reporting that he was thankful the coroner drew blood, saying the family otherwise might never have learned alcohol was in Zoey’s system. He also said he felt the system had failed when reports of bruises and fractures did not bring stronger intervention. That frustration later reached the Capitol. Lawmakers named Senate Bill 432 “Zoey’s Law” and said it was meant to require child-welfare agencies to refer suspected physical abuse, neglect and similar allegations to law enforcement within 12 hours, not only sexual abuse or trafficking. Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the bill on March 27, saying it could overwhelm local agencies, while supporters said the case showed the gap in current law.

Smith’s sentencing closes the first prison term in the case, but not the final hearing. Falkner is set to be sentenced May 1, and the debate over how Wisconsin handles abuse reports tied to Zoey’s death remains unsettled.

Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.