N.C. Toddler Freezes to Death on Porch as White Mom Slept Inside
http://people.com/crime/n-c-toddler-freezes-to-death-on-porch-as-mom-slept-inside-with-drugs-in-her-system/
A North Carolina woman whose 3-year-old son froze to death on their porch earlier this year pleaded guilty on Monday to an involuntary manslaughter charge, PEOPLE confirms.
Jamie Basinger was unconscious, with drugs in her system, as her son, Landyn, was dying outside her home in March, according to a Burke County court official.
Following her plea this week, Basinger was sentenced to 19 and 32 months in prison. That sentence was suspended and she was given three years’ probation, with credit for 245 days already served, according to Basinger’s attorney, Frank Webster, and the Morganton News Herald.
Webster tells PEOPLE she will only serve her remaining months in prison if she violates her probation, meaning her release from behind bars is immediate.
Basinger was also originally charged with felony child abuse in Landyn’s death, but prosecutors dropped that count as part of a plea deal, according to Webster and the News Herald.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Webster wrote, “[Jamie] has not done well at all since Landyn’s death,” and he called the boy’s death a “tragic accident.”
Basinger was arrested in April after Landyn was found on March 15 having frozen to death on the porch of his home in Morgangton, a Burke County court official tells PEOPLE.
The boy had celebrated his third birthday the day before, the clerk says.
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