RICHMOND, Ind. — A judge sentenced an eastern Indiana woman to 60 years in prison Tuesday for the starvation death of her 3-month-old son.
Amy Hockett, 22, was convicted of murder last month in the February 2013 death of Khaiden Hockett. The cause of death was dehydration due to starvation.
“This is the most horrific, unimaginable and senseless crime I’ve been a part of in Wayne County. It can only be described as inhumane,” Wayne Superior Court Judge Gregory Horn told Hockett before he announced her sentence.
Horn noted a pathologist testified during her trial that the dehydration occurred over months, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported.
“Here, the mother was absent in the care of the child, and not only absent, but she was actually watching the child waste away,” the judge said.
Hockett did not address the court during the sentencing and cried as she was led off in handcuffs, shackles and a bulletproof vest.
She told authorities she had been consuming alcohol and marijuana regularly since she was a teenager and had been using heroin three to four times a week in the months after Khaiden’s birth, Deputy Wayne County Prosecutor William Hoelscher said.
Defense attorney Patrick Ragains said Hockett will file an appeal. He requested that she receive a sentence of 55 years.
The child’s father, 25-year-old Joseph Pierson, awaits sentencing after being found guilty but mentally ill of reckless homicide and neglect. He faces a sentence of 20 to 50 years.
Hockett and Pierson face three other counts of neglect in connection with the care of their other children. A trial on those charges is scheduled for April 22.
