Lacey Spears Sentence: 20 Years to Life in Son's Death

Lacey Spears, found guilty last month of murder in the death of her five-year-old son, Garnett-Paul, has received a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.

• SEE: Lacey Spears Found Guilty of 2nd Degree Murder

“Throughout his short life, Garnett Spears was forced to suffer through repeated hospitalizations, unneeded surgical procedures and ultimately poisoning with salt, all at the hands of the one person who should have been his ultimate protector: his mother,” said District Attorney Janet DiFiore in a statement. “Using the child’s “illnesses” to self aggrandize herself, Lacey Spears’ actions directly led to her son’s tortured death. Although the sentence imposed today by the Court is lengthily [sic], we will continue to ensure that his mother is held accountable and that justice for Garnett Spears will be served in his memory.”

The case received a lot of attention both because Spears had exhaustively documented her son’s many hospitalizations on social media and because of the theory—not introduced at the trial—that she may have suffered from a disorder known as Munchausen by proxy.

The DA reviewed the case against the Kentucky resident who had been living in Chestnut Ridge with this timeline:

On January 19th 2014, Garnett Spears was transferred to WMC from Nyack Hospital in Rockland County by Medivac helicopter when without any medical explanation his sodium level rose from 144 to 182 meq/L, - milliequivalents per liter - an extremely dangerous level of sodium.

The normal range of serum sodium in the blood is 135-145 meq/L.

The child’s diagnosis was acute hypernatremia.

The defendant provided the medical staff with a medical history for her son, including extensive medical visits, hospitalizations and invasive surgical procedures. This history coupled with an unexplained rise in his sodium levels at Nyack Hospital prompted the doctors at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the WMC to suspect Lacey Spears of harming her son prompting their call to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

Based on the CPS call and referral to law enforcement, an investigation immediately commenced.

Investigators focused on the child’s recent history and actions of the defendant:

• Friday, January 17th, 2014, the defendant brought the victim to Nyack Hospital reporting seizure activity and he is admitted to rule out seizures.

• Sunday January 19th 2014 at 10:08 p.m. the victim is airlifted to Westchester Medical Center and admitted.

• Tuesday January 21st 2014, at 7:15 a.m. the code bell goes off. Medical staff respond. The child is on his back, unresponsive, and barely breathing, both pupils were blown, he was pale gray in color.

At 11:57 a.m. the head of the Hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit calls in a Child Protective Services report to the State Central Register. At 12:00 p.m. an EEG showed electro cerebral silence.

• Thursday, January 23, 2014, Garnett Spears is declared deceased.

Search warrants were executed on the Spears’ residence. During the case evidence relating to the child’s condition was recovered including feeding bags containing extraordinary amounts of sodium.

On June 17th, 2014 the defendant had an indictment against her unsealed charging her with the murder.

Second Deputy District Attorney Patricia Murphy, Chief of the Superior Court Trial Division, Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd, Chief of the Child Abuse Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Christine Hatfield, Deputy Chief of the Child Abuse Bureau prosecuted the case.