A former Mississippi police officer Ca s sie Barker who left her infant daughter, Cheyenne Hyer inside a hot car while she had sex with her supervisor was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Barker, 29, was sentenced on Monday, 1st April after she pleaded guilty to culpable negligence manslaughter earlier March. She accepted the plea deal to a lesser charge. She was initially charged with second-degree murder.
The mother burst into tears while she offered an apology to her dead daughter during the Monday hearing. She told,
I want to say that the only person I owe an apology to was my daughter because no one else was in her life but me.
She also targeted her apology to Cheyenne's father and her ex-partner Ryan Hyer who was devastated after his daughter's death. She told,
The last time I spoke to him was in July (2016). He doesn't even know what her favorite toys are.
Their child, Cheyenne died on September 30, 2016, after Barker went to her supervisor, Clark Ladner's home to talk to him but ended up having physical relation with him.
The CBS News reported the mother left her child inside the car while running the air conditioner on to combat the 100-degree temperature, however, the ac wasn't blowing cold air.
When Barker returned to the car after around four hours, her daughter was found unresponsive and the girl was rushed to the nearby hospital where the doctors said the baby's body temperature exceeded 107 degrees.
According to the reports, Barker had also left her daughter unattended in a car previously when a pa s serby called Gulfport police.
Meanwhile, the Harrison County Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois told her:
I don't know what I could ever do to you that could be worse than what you\'ve already experienced. You will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind.
Both Barker and her supervisor, Ladner were fired from their job after the incident, said the Sun Herald.
Before Barker's sentencing, it was revealed that she is pregnant with her second child. Damian Holcomb, Barker's attorney told she planned to put her baby up for adoption after she gives birth.
