A Winnipeg woman has been handed a 12-year prison term for brutally beating and smothering and killing her own baby daughter in 2009.
Medical records showed that 20-month-old Jaylene Redhead suffered up to 30 bruises, some from punches, and adult bite marks before her death. Her mother, Nicole Redhead, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting she placed her hand over Jaylene’s mouth for between 70 seconds to two minutes, until the baby stopped breathing. The mom then put the lifeless baby in the crib inside the women’s shelter where the two were living in June 2009, and did not call for help.
“She didn’t have no morals at all, nothing at all,” said the child’s paternal grandmother, Sky Sanderson.
“I lost what I love and I will never, never bring her back, it doesn’t matter what I do,” Sanderson added.
Tuesday, Judge Glenn Joyal said, “One need only to count to 70 and reflect upon what it was the accused was doing to a helpless 20-month-old child to realize the utter senseless of the act.”
Before sentencing Nicole Redhead to 12 years in prison, minus 40 months for time served while being held in custody, the judge did note the mother had a difficult upbringing: as a child, she witnessed her mother kill her father.
Her lawyer was asking for a five- to six-year prison term, and he’s not sure yet if he can appeal the case.
“This was a very difficult day for the accused, as it certainly was for many of the people involved in this case,” said Steve Brennan, “It was obviously a very tragic circumstance. It it’s a day she’s very happy to have behind her.”
But Jaylene’s relatives want to know why welfare officials returned the child to Redhead not long before the killing, and why no one at the shelter heard Jaylene crying.
“Nobody came forward,” Sanderson said, “If I was there, I would have kicked the door open, do everything I can to get my granddaughter out of there.”
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