Norwood woman pleads guilty to manslaughter, child abuse in death of infant daughter

A Norwood woman has been sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison for the death of her infant daughter.

Rebecca King, 38, pleaded guilty Sept. 28 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and child endangering, officials said. Judge Tom Heekin imposed the sentence the same day.

King’s 4-month-old daughter, Lily, died on Oct. 8, 2022, after suffering multiple head injuries. Prosecutors have said the injuries included three skull fractures and several tissue tears within Lily’s brain. The injuries would have left the infant immediately incapacitated, prosecutors said.

King told investigators that she was the only person with her daughter in the hour and a half before she called 911.

When Lily arrived at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, staff there suspected she had been abused, court documents say.

One month before Lily’s death, King was arrested for an apparently alcohol-fueled fight with her boyfriend that led her teenage son to seek a protection order.

An affidavit for the protection order said King drank "close to a 12-pack of beer" on Sept. 5, 2022. She threatened to take their infant daughter to a friend's house. When King’s boyfriend told King she could go but she had to leave their daughter with him, she became enraged, according to the affidavit.

Her son said he tried to calm her down but she “bull rushed” him and began hitting him, the affidavit says.

King pleaded guilty in November 2022 to domestic violence in that incident. At the time of her plea, she already was facing charges in her daughter's death.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Rebecca King pleads to manslaughter, child abuse in death of infant