Mother Whose Twins Died 2 Months Apart Gets 15 Years Behind Bars
FLINT (WWJ/AP) - A Flint woman whose twins died about two months apart has been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison after pleading no contest to second-degree murder.
Crystal Shelton-Randolph's 2-year-old son, Jordan, died in Nov. 2013 from blunt force trauma. In handing down the sentence, Genesee County Judge Geoffrey Neithercut told Shelton-Randolph that the death shocked the community.
Shelton-Randolph, who said she had been in an abusive relationship, will be eligible for parole after 15 years. She'll get credit for two years in jail. As part of her plea agreement, first-degree child abuse and first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges were dropped. Prosecutors had alleged that Shelton-Randolph used a "foreign object" for sexual penetration of her son.
The woman's other child, Ja'Mya Shelton, died months before her twin brother, in Nov. 2013. Her death was linked to asphyxiation, but investigators took another look after the boy's death. Shelton-Randolph was charged with murder in Ja'Mya's death, but that case was dismissed when a judge said there wasn't enough evidence.
A grandmother carried the ashes of both kids to court Wednesday.
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