A judge in Fort Worth County, Texas sentenced Janice Renee Anthony (pictured) to 35 years in prison for killing her 3-year-old daughter, Paris Howard, because she kept urinating on herself during potty training, according to the Star-Telegram.
In September of last year, Anthony summoned police to her home, telling them that her little girl had taken a tumble down a flight of stairs and that she was unable to revive her.
But police investigators on the scene noticed bruising on several areas of the child’s body. After authorities questioned Anthony, they discovered she had struck the child various times during the course of potty training her. The state’s child protective services department also had a previous case against Anthony, who was 15 at the time she gave birth to Paris.
The then 19-year-old mom, who was also pregnant with another child at the time of her arrest, gave birth to a baby boy just days after she was charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Anthony’s infant son was placed in foster care.
Toxicology reports revealed that Anthony had choked her daughter on the night that she died.
Anthony’s defense during the trial was that she had been the victim of abuse at the hands of a family member when she was a child. Her attorney, Richard A. Henderson, tried to make a case surrounding her childhood abuse, which he felt should have been taken into account before her sentencing.
“That gave us a little more insight because normally, people don’t do these type of things,” Henderson said. “She did not get much support from her family. I think it was the best outcome for everyone.”
Anthony will have to serve at least seventeen and a half years before she is even eligible for parole.
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