BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — The attorney for the mother charged with aggravated neglect after her two young children were found unresponsive in the bath has asked the state preserve evidence from her cellphone.
The incident left the a 15 month-old dead and a newborn infant fighting for her life.
The order was filed last week with the Blount County Clerk's office.
It was a legal quarrel that brought Bethanie Carriker to court Wednesday.
Her public defender says sheriff's investigators had improper contact with Carriker in jail.
"When she invoked her right to have an attorney represent her, at that time it was required the officers stop questioning her," Stacey Nordquist said.
She says she didn't get proper notification and wanted the judge to tell the State not to contact Carriker.
Prosecutors disagreed and said detectives had called.
Judge Robert Headrick didn't ban contact between the State and Carriker, but said lawyers should make sure to communicate.
There were no new details in court on the domestic incident sheriff's deputies responded to at Carriker's home earlier on the day the state says she left her two children alone in the bath.