Woman Sentenced To Prison In 2019 Infant's Death At Doylestown Day Care

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to prison in the death of an infant nearly three years ago at an unlicensed day care in Doylestown. Lauren Landgrebe, 50, of Upper Southampton had pleaded guilty in Bucks County to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the August 2019 death of 11-month-old Victoria Watson.

Prosecutors said she left the child strapped in a car seat on her dining room table and returned to find her unresponsive. An autopsy later concluded that the child wasn't properly secured in the car seat and had been strangled by its chest harness.

President Judge Wallace Bateman chastised her for what he called the "callousness" of her actions as he sentenced her Tuesday to one day less than a year to one day less than two years in jail, followed by 10 years' probation.

Defense attorney Louis Busico called the sentence "in the interest of justice" but said he recognized the pain of the family. The child's parents and other relatives told the court of the joy she brought them in her short life and the grief they have wrestled with in the years since her death.

"There is forever a piece of us that is missing that will never be replaced," Victoria's mother, Marita Watson said.