Mother Who Starved Child To Serve 13 Years
MIAMI - (CBS4) - For starving her 13-month-old daughter, a Key Largo woman will serve 13 years behind bars.
Minutes before her jury trial was expected to begin, Amy Stephenson, 30, agreed to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter Monday morning for starving her daughter Jasmine, according to the Florida Keys Keynoter.
Stephenson gave birth to Jasmine prematurely and the child suffered medical conditions requiring her to be hospitalized for six months.
Jasmine was malnourished and eventually died on September 6, 2006 weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces.
"It's a tragedy what happened to Jasmine," said Francine Donnorummo, one of two prosecutors in the case told the Keynoter.
Stephenson's first trial in 2008 was overturned and an appellate court ordered a retrial because of a prosecutors question asking her if she had considered aborting Jasmine.
Before that trial, Stephenson rejected a deal that would have imprisoned her for five years.
Attorneys for Stephenson also asked a judge to allow her to serve her sentence at the Broward Correctional Institution, but the judge did not immediately make a decision on that.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Florida Keys Keynoter contributed to this report.)
