A 22-year-old
Ohio woman, Deasia Watkins was sentenced this week to 15 years to life in
prison after admitting before a Hamilton County, Ohio, judge on Thursday, that
she decapitated her 3-month-old daughter. Watkins pleaded guilty to one count
of murder in the 2015 death of her 3 month old infant daughter, Jayniah.
Watkins
fractured the girl’s arm before stabbing her repeatedly and then beheaded the
poor child in March 2015, court records show. The child had reportedly been
placed with Watkins’ aunt due to her erratic behavior previously.
Prosecutors
said Watkins killed her child, Jayniah, in her aunt’s home, while her aunt was
asleep, and then put the knife in Jayniah’s hand.
“She later
told police she did that so people would think the child did it to herself – not
her,”
Hamilton
County Assistant Prosecutor David Prem said in court. Watkins’ plea this week
comes after she had rejected an earlier deal. For more than a year, she had
been mounting an insanity defense: Court documents show that Watkins had been
diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, for which she is still receiving
treatment.
Watkins
addressed the court at her hearing Thursday, expressing remorse for her crime.
She said:
“I love my
daughter very much,” she said, according to a prosecution source.
“I loved
her,” she said, “regardless of what anybody says.”
The county
coroner in 2015 described Jayniah's death as:
“It was
pretty horrific”. “These are images that will be indelibly marked in my
memory.”
Court
officials say Watkins could be released from custody when she’s 35, given she’s
received credit for time already served.
SourceL
PEOPLE
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