A Florida mother has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars after accidentally leaving her baby in her vehicle on a hot day, resulting in the infant's tragic death.
Megan Dauphin, 32, was sentenced to 30 years on Wednesday this week (May 17), after being found guilty back in April for the manslaughter of her baby daughter, McKinlee Grace Garner, WJHG reports.
The court heard how the distressing incident occurred on September 2020, when Dauphin had put McKinlee into her Chevy Tahoe truck and driven to a local store to buy a pack of cigarettes, per WMBB.
However, when Dauphin returned home, she went inside without McKinlee.
Dauphin's step-daughter questioned her on where McKinlee was, four hours later. Dauphin initially said the baby was in the living room, according to her step-daughter, however, when Dauphin realized McKinlee wasn't there, she ran outside to her truck.
Sadly, McKinlee was already dead.
Authorities later revealed that Dauphin had been high on methamphetamine when she left the newborn in the car, according to WMBB. Following McKinlee's death, Dauphin's family and friends revealed that she had gone into shock.
In court on Monday this week (May 15), Dauphin admitted that she is still distraught over her daughter's tragic death. "I do the best I can every day to just be there for the rest of my other kids. But even that is, or anytime I see any little girl I serve, I would break down in the bathroom and cry," she stated, per WKRG.
However, her sister, Tiffany Dauphin, also spoke to the court and said that Dauphin was a good person and mother who had slipped up and made a mistake, saying: "I've known her as kind, respectable, trustworthy, honest, giving. And she's always been there to help any time that anyone in the family has ever needed anything.
"She loves kids. She has always loved kids."
Dauphin's friend, Robin Howell, also testified on her behalf, saying that Dauphin had suffered immensely in the wake of her daughter's passing.
"And I was just telling her, you know, it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK. And [Dauphin] said, 'No, it's not. She said, 'I'm going to prison,'" Howell told the court.
Howell also testified that Dauphin admitted to her via a Facebook message a day after McKinlee's death that she had drugs in her system when she died. This statement was corroborated by police deputies, who arrived on the scene soon after McKinlee's death and had found drug paraphernalia at Dauphin's home that they believed was consistent with the use of methamphetamine, People detailed.
After her arrest the same day, Dauphin underwent a drug test that showed she had methamphetamine in her system on the morning of the incident.