HALL COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia mother accused of starving her 5-year-old daughter before she died weighing just under 8 pounds was sentenced Monday to 20 years of probation.
Kylie Mickens was born with the rare 1p36 deletion syndrome, which causes weak muscle tone and brain abnormalities. People with the syndrome also have seizures and difficulty swallowing, WSB-TV reported.
The child died of dehydration and malnutrition due to medical neglect, according to the autopsy report.
Kylie’s mother, Porscha Mickens, testified about the difficulty of caring for a child with the condition, arguing that her daughter ate the same amount every day and that she often gained and lost weight on a day-to-day basis, the TV station reported.
“I didn’t realize she was dying. … (When) her body shut down, I had seen that before, so I didn’t think that she was dying,” Mickens testified.
Prosecutors had asked Porscha Mickens, receive a 30-year sentence with 25 to serve in prison and five on probation, but Mickens accepted a plea deal on second-degree murder and child cruelty charges, WSB-TV reported.
Superior Court Judge C. Andrew Fuller said during Monday’s proceeding that, under the law, the facts did not demand that Porscha Mickens should go to prison but that he hoped her daughter’s death was punishment enough, the TV station reported.
“The court can only hope that you will suffer a greater punishment simply by that fact than any punishment that this court could impose on you, the fact that you lost Kylie and will not have her in your life for the rest of your life,” Fuller said.
When 5-year-old Kylie Mickens arrived at a Hall County hospital in June 2020, she weighed only 2 pounds more than she had at birth, according to the Gainesville Times.
Her official weight when she died June 8, 2021, was slightly less than 8 pounds, WSB-TV reported.
Assistant District Attorney Anna Fowler said Kylie Mickens suffered from the worst case of malnutrition and dehydration doctors had ever seen and that she was “looking like a mummy.”
Meanwhile, more than a dozen of Porscha Mickens’ friends and family members supported her throughout the trial, testifying that she constantly cared for her daughter and had taken her to 14 specialists and a naturopathic doctor, WSB-TV reported.