Heather Reynolds was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for suffocating to death her 17-month-old baby in New Jersey.
Judge Gwendolyn Blue also sentenced Reynolds, 45, for charges of drug possession and endangering a minor, said Peter Gallagher, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor’s office.
The boy’s death happened in the spring of 2018 and Reynolds has been in custody all this time. She had been convicted of the crimes last July during a nine-day trial, but she was acquitted of conspiracy in a Ham murder-for-hire plot to kill an ex-boyfriend.
Before imposing the sentence, the Sicklerville judge heard from other members of the baby’s family about how the crime had affected their lives, she said. CBS News.
Prosecutors alleged that Reynolds suffocated his son Axel by placing a cleaning wipe over his nose and mouth on May 10, 2018. They concluded that it was driven by her drug addiction and desire to maintain an extramarital affair and killed his son to get him out of the way.
Her attorney, who vowed to appeal, called her a devoted mother who tried to revive her son when she found him unconscious and then ran off hugging him and screaming for help from neighbors. Emergency crews found the boy on the lawn of his family’s home in Gloucester Township.
In the past week Two young men, one of them Hispanic, have been charged in the deaths of their babies in New Jersey and Queens (NYC).
Several children died in the last months of 2021 in NYC victims of alleged abuse in their homes. Other cases have also been reported in 2022. If you are a victim or suspect that someone is being mistreated, especially if they are a minor or elderly person.