Baby-Sitter Gets 15 Years to Life in Child’s Death
A Van Nuys baby-sitter was sentenced Thursday to 15 years to life in prison for shaking an 18-month-old girl so violently that the child died.
Nova Marcia Thompson, 35, sat quietly as Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann sentenced her for the June 9, 1989, death of Jasmine Lynn Sanders, who lapsed into a coma after being shaken and scalded with water. Prosecutors said Thompson shook the toddler because she was not chewing her food properly.
Thompson pleaded guilty in October to one count of second-degree murder, averting a trial in which her own daughter would have been the main witness against her.
In exchange for Thompson’s plea, prosecutors dropped one count each of felony child abuse and corporal infliction of injury stemming from a severe burn on Jasmine’s foot and bruises on her face, head and torso.
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