Mom kills 8-month-old baby who wouldn’t stop crying, IL officials say. She’s sentenced
An Illinois woman was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the death of her 8-month-old baby, state officials said.
Shanquilla Garvey, 30, was living at the Bel-Air Motel in Joliet with her three kids in December 2017, according to a Feb. 26 Facebook post by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.
On Dec. 20, Garvey was in the motel room when her 8-month-old baby, Cherish, would not stop crying. Garvey then threw Cherish into a dresser, picked her up and shook her, then threw her onto the floor, officials said.
When Garvey saw Cherish was unresponsive, she called 911. Cherish was rushed to a hospital then airlifted to another hospital, officials said. She suffered from two skull fractures, bleeding on the brain and a liver laceration.
Cherish died from blunt force trauma on Christmas Eve, according to officials.
“I love my daughter and I miss her dearly,” Cherish’s father, Justin Freeman, told WLS-TV in 2018. “This shouldn’t have happened to her.”
Garvey was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, which she later pleaded guilty to, court records show.
“For a mother to beat her own baby to death is incomprehensible,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said. “Cherish was taken from this earth simply because Shanquilla Garvey wanted her to stop crying. This precious baby girl’s last experience was one of trauma and suffering, something no prison sentence can ever undo.”
McClatchy News reached out to Garvey’s attorney on Feb. 27 but did not immediately hear back.
Garvey will receive 2,377 days credit on her sentence for time served and will also be required to serve three years of mandatory supervised release, officials said.
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