Mother who fatally poisoned baby son with salt - and then blogged about his fight for life - jailed for 20 years
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 09 April, 2015, 11:00pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 09 April, 2015, 11:00pm
Reuters in New York
Lacey Spears looks towards Judge Robert Neary during her sentencing on April 8, 2015 at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, N.Y. Photo: AP
A suburban New York mother who blogged about motherhood was sentenced by a judge to 20 years to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering her young son with a salt overdose so she could bask in social media attention about his mysterious illness.
The sentence imposed on Lacey Spears, 27, who chronicled her five-year-old son's illnesses on a personal blog called "Garnett's Journey" and other social media, was less than the maximum penalty of 25 years to life requested by the prosecution.
Lacey Spears and her five-year-old son
"By not imposing the maximum, I'm exhibiting something you didn't show your son - namely mercy," said Judge Robert Neary in the Westchester County Courthouse in Valhalla.
A jury convicted Spears of second-degree murder in Garnett's 2014 death at Westchester Medical Centre.
Assistant district attorney Doreen Lloyd described Garnett as a normal, healthy child whose illnesses were induced by his mother, who eventually killed him by putting a lethal amount of salt into the hospitalised boy's feeding tube, all the while blogging and posting pictures to Facebook.
"She continued to portray him as a sick child for her own bizarre need for attention. She used that feeding tube as a weapon to kill him," Lloyd said.
"Garnett Spears should be in school today but he's not because his mother murdered him," she said.
Spears declined to make a final statement, standing with her wrists cuffed behind her.
The judge described her as mentally ill and identified her condition as "Munchausen by proxy syndrome", in which a caregiver fabricates a medical problem for someone in their care.
"Your crime is unfathomable in its cruelty. How could a mother ever treat her child in such a callous, inhumane manner?" the judge said.
