MALDEN, Mo. (AP) - A southeast Missouri woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the shaking death of a 9-month-old baby in her care.
The Daily American Republic reports that 26-year-old Breon Dannielle Lashay Hess, of Malden, was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter. Police responded in October 2016 to a report of an unresponsive infant at a Malden apartment. The boy was taken to a children's hospital in St. Louis, where he died several days later.
Malden police chief Jarrett Bullock wrote in the probable-cause statement that Hess told police the baby was "unusually fussy" and that she became upset and shook him. She later found him gasping for breath and vomiting.
Medical staff described his brain injury as "devastating."