DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — The mother whose 3-year-old froze to death in a wooded area says she accepts responsibility for what happened.
29-year-old Uriah Ridge pleaded guilty in a Douglas County courtroom and was sentenced to life with parole.
“And I will sentence you to count one, to felony murder, life,” Superior Court Judge Deah Warren told Ridge.
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Before Judge Warren sentenced Ridge she expressed how there were opportunities to avoid what happened.
“It is with profound sadness that this is where we had to be,” she said.
The judge was referring to Prosecutor Victoria Hicks saying that two years before the death of Ridge’s 3-year-old daughter, police say an intoxicated Ridge slapped and beat her 7-year-old son at the Thunderzone bowling alley.
Witnesses say she also dropped her 3-year-old.
Still, Ridge was allowed to keep her children.
Hicks said in court Ridge was high on cocaine and marijuana back in January when she kept her 3-year-old and 7-year-old children in a wooded area at the Foxhall Resort for 11 hours.
Temperatures were in the 20s and it was raining that night.
“Elijah described trying to warm his sister up by covering her with leaves,” Hicks said.
She said Elijah and Alina told their mother they were cold but she told them to be quiet.
The 7-year-old then noticed his sister, Alina, wasn’t moving.
“The cause of death in this case was hypothermia. She froze to death,” Hicks said.
Workers found Ridge and the kids the next morning.
Ridge didn’t address the court.
But her attorney said she was high on drugs and suffering from mental illness that night.
“And she has been tragically remorseful as any mother who has done something that has led to the death of her child,” Alison Frutoz said.
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Judge Warren said this is sad all around, especially for Elijah, who watched his baby sister die.
“And my heart absolutely breaks for the realities of what he will deal with,” she said.
Ridge’s attorney said she wanted to write a letter to the court but just couldn’t do it so she asked her attorney to speak for her.
She said Ridge took the plea to show everyone how sorry she was.
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