A Los Angeles woman who pleaded no contest Thursday to second-degree murder for the beating death of a 4-year-old girl she was babysitting was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.
Just before Vanessa Denise Hawkins-Scott was sentenced, the girl’s mother, Candice Migneault, said that when her child died, “she took my soul with her … She was my only child. I don’t want any more kids because of this whole incident.”
“I can’t forgive, I’m sorry, I just can’t,” she told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader. “It’s up to the Lord.”
The judge responded, “I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter.”
Hawkins-Scott, 55, of the Westlake district, put her head down on the table after being led into the courtroom before the hearing and appeared to be crying, then sobbed as she was being led out of the courtroom after being sentenced.
Hawkins-Scott entered her plea Jan. 22 as jury selection was set to begin in her trial.
She was babysitting the girl, identified only as “Mya M.,” in March 2014 while the child’s mother was out of state. She was arrested by Los Angeles police after she took the unresponsive child to a hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead.
Two other charges — assault on a child causing death and child abuse — against Hawkins-Scott were dismissed as a result of her plea.
—Staff and wire reports