GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan judge has issued a sentence in what he called an "outrageously disturbing" case in which a woman left her infant son in a sweltering attic, where he died while she partied.
Lovily Johnson, 23, was sentenced Thursday to 20-80 years in prison, media outlets reported.
"This was an outrageously disturbing set of facts," Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock said, according to MLive.com. "This was your own child, who was 6 months old, and you killed him."
Johnson apologized in court, WZZM-TV reported. "If I could give my life for his, I would,'' she said.
Investigators said that in July 2017, 6-month-old Noah was left alone, strapped in a car seat for parts of three days in an attic bedroom where temperatures reached up to 90 degrees. Meanwhile, Johnson went out, partied and did drugs with friends, according to court testimony.
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The baby was still in the car seat when Johnson took him to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids. Noah was already dead. An autopsy showed he was dehydrated, malnourished and had severe diaper rash.
Defense attorney Jonathan Schildgen argued that Johnson’s life had been shaped by a rough childhood that followed her into adulthood, calling it a “generational curse.”
"Do I think she has the heart and soul of someone who wanted to torture and sadistically murder her baby? No,'' Schildgen told the judge.
Johnson ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder following a trial in September that resulted in a hung jury. Prosecutors were seeking another trial.
Trusock told Johnson he hopes she thinks about her son every day while in prison.