A 24-year-old woman identified as Victoria Phanhtarath was initially sentenced to 35 years imprisonment by Oklahoma State Judge Kenneth Watson for allowing her ex-boyfriend, Freddy Mendez murder her 3-year-old daughter Alexis.
Phanhtarath had pleaded guilty to the charges of “murder by permitting child abuse” brought up against her by the court.
A year after the case was first heard in court, the prosecutors decided to give room for a new hearing which would determine Phanhtarath’s fate. During the second hearing, the woman narrated her ordeal in the hands of her ex-boyfriend and murderer of her daughter.
According to Watson, “there were tears” from the panel of judges Yahoo News reports and the aftermath of the shocking narration made him effect immediate changes in her sentence leading to her discharge.
Reacting about the case in court, Watson disclosed that in three and a half decades of practicing law, “I’ve never had a case that has stuck with me the way this has stuck with me.”
In a related development, about 28 women were said to have received prison sentences which are not less than 10 years for failure to stop their spouses from hurting their children.
Similar to Phanhtarath’s case, it was also observed that there had been evidence of battery in all the cases from the various men involved.
