An ex-police officer in Long Beach, Mississippi named Cassie Barker, who had been dismissed from her job, admitted that she was distracted by a sexual encounter with a then-supervisor at the time her three-year-old daughter was dying in a hot car.
The little girl, Cheyenne Hyer, was left in the mother’s police cruiser, where she had to endure conditions of extreme heat until she passed away.
The tragedy occurred on September 30, 2016, and the child was left in the car for four hours as the mother was having sex at the home of her then-supervisor.
Barker has made a full confession to the tragic incident, and she has decided to plead guilty to the charges of manslaughter brought up against her.
Reports indicate that the new charges were a step down from the ones she was initially facing, as she was able to negotiate a plea deal with the prosecution. She previously faced a second-degree murder charge.
However, Harrison County Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois has not issued a final ruling yet. The case will be reviewed in about two weeks, on April 1.
Bourgeois told the woman: “Ma’am, I don’t know what I could ever to do you that could be worse than what you’ve already experienced…you will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind.”
Prosecutors are recommending that she spends at least 20 years in prison. It does look like the mother has shown a lot of remorse over the incident, and that appears to have been part of the prosecution’s motivation to lower the charges against her.
Barker was hospitalized, and experts, who evaluated her, said she had post-traumatic stress disorder linked to the shocking incident and trauma from her childhood.
As more details have been coming out, the woman has dealt with a lot of scrutiny from the media and people close to her, according to reports.
Some have even expressed sympathy for her tragic situation, although most seem to agree that in the end, the death of her daughter falls on her shoulders and nobody else can take the blame for that.
The former Long Beach police officer was involved in a similar incident in April 2015, and child welfare officials intervened and took the same child temporarily.
The child’s father, Ryan Hyer, claims he never heard anything about this first incident.
Mr. Hyer stated: “Every time I close my eyes, I picture her suffering, and then I picture her laying in this coffin. I still see her smiling and laughing in my head, and I would assume that smile and laughter turned to pain and suffering in that instance.”
The attention of many remains firmly fixed on the case until the sentencing has been made official.
