A North Carolina woman was sentenced for the death of her three-year-old son, who froze to death on her potch while she was unconscious with drugs in her system, on Monday.
Jamie Basinger’s son, Landyn, was found dead the day after his third birthday on March 15 after freezing on the porch of his home in Morganton, North Carolina. The 24-year-old Basinger was arrested in April.
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According to a warrant, Basinger told Burke County Sheriff’s deputies that she saw her son at 10:30 p.m. the previous day after putting him to bed. Basinger also had illegal substances in her system, reports WSOC-TV.
Prosecutors said authorities went to Basinger’s home after a concerned neighbor called about a toddler on the porch. An officer knocked on the door, and her boyfriend, Joshua Steffey, answered the door. Steffey and Basinger told police they smoked marijuana the night before Landyn died and meth that week, the assistant district attorney said.
On the night of Landyn’s death, it was between four and 20 degrees, with a wind chill.
The Morganton News Herald reports that Basinger agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a felony child abuse charge.
On Monday, Judge Nathaniel Poovey sentenced Basinger to 36 months of supervised probation and 19 to 32 months in prison. However, she was given credit for the 245 days she has been in police custody. She could get more jail time if she violates the terms of her probation. She also has to complete 72 hours of community service.
“(Jamie is) here to take responsibility for this, but at the same time, no amount of punishment is going to take away what’s in her heart for Landyn — how much she loved and loves him,” Frank Webster, Basinger’s attorney, said Monday. “The court system, all of us will move on. We’ll go on to other things. She’ll never go on. She’ll never be able to move past this.”
Photo credit: Twitter/ Burke County Sheriff’s Office
