Daycare Provider Gets No Prison Time For Trying To Hang Toddler

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — A Minneapolis in-home daycare provider was sentenced to 10 years of probation and electronic home monitoring after pleading guilty to attempted murder in connection to the hanging of a child.

Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam did not include prison time in the sentencing, but gave Nataliia Karia, 43, credit for her 20 months spent in jail.

Karia told the court that she had been struggling with mental health issues in the weeks leading up to the incident.

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In Russian, Karia — who moved to the United States from Ukraine in 2006 — read a statement in court Monday about her allegedly abusive husband. She said her husband was violent and forced her to work despite severe mental health struggles.

Karia also said her husband kept her from receiving medical attention and drove her family into financial ruin, reports the Star Tribune.

"I don’t want to push this terrible crime onto my husband. I just want to explain what happened," she said through a translator.

According to the criminal complaint, on Nov. 16, 2016 Karia told a father who was dropping off his son that she couldn't take it anymore and come see what she had done. He walked towards the basement and heard crying, went down the stairs and saw the toddler hanging from a noose.

He released the child and ran out the door with him. In the meantime, Karia fled in her minivan.

She rear-ended a car on West 28th Street at Grand Avenue, shoving that car into the car ahead, according to police. When the driver of the first car got out to check for damage, Karia pulled into traffic and struck him, dragging him for 10 blocks.

At West 28th Street and Park Avenue, she struck a bicyclist, the complaint states.

Five other people were also injured as a result of Karia's driving, authorities said.

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