Dad gets 2 1/2 years for neglect of slain 11-month-old Plymouth girl
A judge Friday sentenced the father of Mercedes Lain, an 11-month-old Plymouth girl who died at the hands of a babysitter last year, to 2 ½ years in prison for child neglect.
Kenneth Lain, 42, pleaded guilty last month to the neglect charge, admitting he placed Mercedes in a harmful environment that included drugs and that he allowed a friend to babysit the girl despite the friend’s own history of drug use.
That friend, Justin Miller, 37, was sentenced to 65 years in prison last month after pleading guilty to murder in Mercedes’ beating death.
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According to court documents, Lain and the girl’s mother, Tiffany Coburn, gave Mercedes to Miller on Aug. 12 so they could “have a break” from taking care of her.
Lain reported Mercedes missing on Aug. 15, prompting a search by local, state and federal law enforcement. Miller eventually told police he hit and killed Mercedes at a home in Mishawaka and took her to a remote part of Starke County, where her body was later found.
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Marshall County Prosecutor E. Nelson Chipman said Saturday that Marshall Superior Court Judge Matthew Sarber gave Lain the maximum 2 ½-year prison sentence for a Level 6 felony during a hearing Friday.
“Tragic result with Mercedes,” Chipman said. “It’s one of those chapters that affects a lot of people who didn’t even know the people involved. It’s not just the family that suffers.”
Coburn, 33, also pleaded guilty to a neglect charge and is set to be sentenced Feb. 25.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mercedes Lain's father sentenced to 2 1/2 years for neglect of infant
