CA woman who hit child on flight to Seattle sentenced

SEATTLE - A woman accused of hitting and shaking her child during a flight from Mexico to Seattle has pleaded guilty to assault, and has been sentenced to a year of federal supervision.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle sentenced 33-year-old Breanna Mistler of Davis California, to time served plus a year of supervision for misdemeanor assault. Mistler was arrested at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on May 1, 2024, when the plane landed.

According to court records, Mistler was seen abusing her child during the flight. At one point, the child woke her up, so she struck and shook the 2-year-old child "like a ragdoll."

Several passengers tried to intervene, and Mistler told them to "mind their own [expletive] business," court records say.

After her arrest at Sea-Tac, Mistler was held in the Federal Detention Center for about three weeks.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Mistler is also soon serving a sentence in California for an arson conviction. She has been taking parenting and anger management classes, and told a judge that, at the time of the assault, she was at her "lowest point." Mistler's attorney said she is now "sober, reflective and remorseful and currently has supervised visits with her daughter."

Mistler's four-month arson sentence begins in September, after which she will be placed under federal supervision by the federal probation office, Child Protective Services and California probation officers.