A California mother who ordered her children to crawl under a stopped train to catch a bus, resulting in the gruesome death of her 8-year-old daughter, has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Joy Collins, 49, tearfully pleaded with a judge Tuesday to spare her, saying she wished she had acted differently on Dec. 17, 2018, ABC30 reported.
That night, the mother was walking with her two children, the 8-year-old daughter and the 9-year-old son, in Fresno.
The family was in a hurry to get to a bus stop and Collins told his children to crawl under a train that had stopped on the tracks.
Collins’ son made it across safely, but his daughter, Joyanna Harris, was hit by the train, which began to move.
The boy was dragged 500 feet and partially dismembered.
Photos taken by police at the scene were so gruesome that when they were shown in court during Collins’ trial this fall, the mother asked to leave the room.
Collins was convicted in October of two counts of child abuse and endangerment after a former police detective testified that she was overheard telling her children to “hurry up” or they would miss the bus, WPDE reported.
Joy Collins asked a judge for leniency at her sentencing in Fresno, California, saying she regretted her actions.
Tragically, the freight train was idle for only 12 seconds, not giving Collins’ daughter enough time to walk on the tracks.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t regret any of that, and I do,” Collins said during his sentencing Tuesday. “And I ask you for mercy so I don’t have to go to prison.”
“I apologize very much, as I said, to the public and to everyone for everything that happened during that time,” he added.
Joy Collins, 49, was sentenced to six years in prison for making her 8-year-old daughter crawl under a stopped train, resulting in her death in 2018.
The mother’s defense lawyer, Mark Broughton, asked that his client be given probation.
But the judge dismissed the woman’s pleas and her attorney’s request, and handed her a six-year sentence to be served in state prison.
He must also pay a fine of $1,200.
Collins’ son is now being raised by his grandparents.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn