The Mississippi police officer who left her three-year-old daughter strapped in a hot car so she could have sex with her supervisor pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday.
Former Mississippi Gulf Coast officer Cassie Barker left her daughter, Cheyenne, inside her patrol car for four hours on Sept. 30, 2016, after falling asleep post-sex, she admitted Monday. Authorities say the infant’s body temperature rose to 107 degrees and died. (RELATED: Six hours later, toddler dead after Dallas teacher left her in sizzling car)
Barker pleaded down to reduced charges of manslaughter after she was first indicted for second degree murder.
“I don’t know what I could ever do to you that could be worse than what you’ve already experienced,” Harrison County Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois told Barker. “You will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind.”
Barker and the other officer, Clark Ladner, who was her supervisor at the time, were immediately fired following Cheyenne’s death. Ladner claimed he was unaware Cheyenne was in the car and was consequently not charged in her death.
This was not the first time Barker had left Cheyenne in the car alone, the Sun Herald reported. Ryan Hyer, Cheyenne’s father, believes Mississippi Child Protective Services and the police department failed to act appropriately to protect his daughter and filed lawsuits against the organizations.
“As a parent, you are supposed to protect your child, and Cheyenne is gone because her mother didn’t protect her, not once but twice,” Hyer said. “May God have mercy on her soul.”
The Hancock County sheriff’s department told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Barker will be sentenced on April 1, and can receive up to 20 years in prison.
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