A 24-year-old Indiana mother, Raeleigh Phillips, will spend years behind bars for killing her 9-day-old infant boy. She left him in his car seat for an excruciating 14 hours, resulting in the boy’s demise.
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As reported by Law & Crime, Phillips was sentenced to six years in prison on Monday, October 6. She had pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in September for the 2024 death of her son, Emmett.
“The court gives little mitigation to defendant stating ‘sorry’ in court with little emotion,” Dearborn County Superior Court Judge Sally A. McLaughlin said in court. “The circumstances of the infant’s death in the words of the investigating detective are ‘unconscionable.'”
Newborn Boy Left In Car Seat
According to an affidavit obtained by WXIX, the incident occurred on March 3, 2024. At around 2:30 p.m., Lawrenceburg Police Department officers and emergency personnel responded to a Bellaire Drive apartment. They had received a report of an unresponsive infant.
Upon arrival, they found 9-day-old Emmett unresponsive and immediately started CPR. After he was transported to St. Elizabeth Dearborn Hospital, Emmett was pronounced deceased. According to prosecutors, the newborn boy had been dead long before first responders arrived and tried to save him.
It was then revealed that Phillips had left her son in his car seat for 14 hours from March 2 to March 3. Furthermore, the coroner’s office determined that Emmett had asphyxiated to death. He hadn’t been properly breathing due to his position.
Raeleigh Phillips explained that they had arrived at their apartment at around 2 p.m. on March 2 after a trip to Kroger. Noticing her son was sleeping, she decided to let him rest in the car seat inside their home. Saying that the boy “seemed content,” she decided to watch TV and not check on him, eventually falling asleep.
However, when she finally woke up on March 3, Phillips said her son felt cold to the touch and limp. The boy hadn’t eaten for the whole time, and he had a soiled diaper. Her roommates told the police that she screamed her lungs out, asking them to call 911, which they did.
As per WKRC, the mother was on probation at the time for neglecting one of her other children.