Florida mother gets 15 years for daughter’s death
June 02, 2015On behalf of Terence Gross of Gross & Schuster, P.A. posted in Wrongful Death on Thursday, October 6, 2011.
A Florida woman is described by her own mother as a good parent, but she did the unthinkable. She left her very young children alone at home for days, and when she came home to find one of them dead, she put the girl’s body in a trash can outside.
Now she’s been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the girl’s wrongful death. She could have gotten 60 years, but the judge noted the woman’s depression and thought there was basis for a mitigated sentence. She had been charged with two counts of child neglect as well.
The woman apparently left her three young children, including 1-year-old twins, home alone from Oct. 10 through Oct. 12. She left them Jell-O cups to eat in the living room. There was no electricity or running water, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
When the 23-year-old woman returned home, she found one of the young twins dead and put her in a trash can. She apparently reported the other twin missing. It was until investigators questioned her for 12 hours that she admitted her daughter was dead. Police found the other twin in a bedroom, barely alive. They found the deceased child in a trash can behind the home.
The woman apparently had her share of problems, including unemployment. She said she left the home to get help from friends who gave her food stamps. Her family members have apparently said she should be treated for depression rather than go to prison, but that argument didn’t win over prosecutors.
Source: Pensacola News Journal, “Mother to serve 15 years in prison,” Thyrie Bland, Oct. 3, 2011
