A 23-year-old western Michigan woman was sentenced in the death of her 6-month-old son who was left in a car seat in a hot attic for 32 hours as she partied.
Lovily Johnson of Wyoming, Michigan, was sentenced Thursday in Kent County Circuit Court in Grand Rapids.
Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock called the incident “an outrageously disturbing set of facts.’’ He sentenced her to 20 to 80 years in prison for the death of Noah Johnson, who had been abandoned in a car seat and placed in an attic where temperatures reached 90 degrees. The infant also had no food or water and his diaper had not been changed.
"This was your own child who was six months old and you killed him,’’ Judge Mark Trusock said. “I hope you think every day of how you killed your own child.’’
The baby weighed a mere 12 pounds and was already dead by the time his mother took him to the hospital on July 21.
Johnson’s attorney, Jonathan Schildgren, said the single mother suffered from a dysfunctional childhood and was overwhelmed with taking care of her younger sister and 2-year-old daughter in addition to her infant son.
“She’s a young kid who probably had her heart broken when she was born,” Schildgren said. “So do I think she has the heart and soul of someone who wanted to torture and sadistically murder her baby? No, she doesn’t.”
The 23-year-old mother apologized Thursday, telling Trusock she never intended to harm her son. “If I could give my life for his, I would,’’ Johnson said.
