Mom wants friend to serve time after toddler found unresponsive in hotel pool

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A 3-year-old boy is on the road to recovery after he was found unconscious in a Nashville hotel pool Friday. A mom, two sons, and her best friend were visiting Nashville for one night on their way to Florida.

Lacy Cotton, the mom of Brentley Cotton, decided to take a nap while her friend and two kids went for a walk. Next thing she knew, she woke up to police banging on her door.

“They said, ‘Are you Lacy?’” Cotton said. “I said, ‘Yes, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘I need you to come with me.’ Then, he told me Brentley was in the hospital, and I instantly freaked out.”

When Lacy Cotton got to Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Brentley was hooked up to a ventilator.

“I wanted to do anything I could to be in that bed besides him,” Cotton said.

The last time she saw her son, he left with her best friend, Mace Reggetz. She hasn’t seen or heard from her since.

“Yeah, she was nowhere to be found at all,” Cotton said, adding Reggetz never told her about what happened. She says she fled and left the two boys alone in the pool.

“I trust her 100%, and now I don’t trust anyone around my kids besides family members,” Cotton said.

Cotton says she and Reggetz never argued, and everything was fine with the two friends leading up to the incident. Now, she never wants to see or talk to her again.

“I want to see that she gets payback for what she did to my poor little baby,” she says. “However long she needs in jail, she deserves it.”

As for Brentley, Cotton says her son never deserved to be in his current condition.

“Even though he can’t walk or talk anymore, like they are saying, which I have faith he will, he can still be alive, and I am thankful for that,” she said.

Cotton said Brentley was taken off of his ventilator Wednesday morning and is now breathing on his own.

Metro Police say they are investigating this incident. A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Brentley’s family with medical expenses.

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