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Woman Who Smothered 1-Year-Old Son in Bathroom Gets 18-Year Sentence - The New York Times

posted onNovember 21, 2017
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Article snippet: A woman who claimed the devil made her smother her son in the bathroom of a Manhattan restaurant in 2015 was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter. The woman, Latisha Fisher, 38, of the Lower East Side in Manhattan, had a history of mental illness and violence. On Oct. 30, the eve of her trial, she accepted a plea offer from prosecutors. She decided against an insanity defense and accepted responsibility for the death of her son, Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher. Before Justice Gregory Carro of State Supreme Court in Manhattan announced her sentence, Ms. Fisher wept uncontrollably, muttering through her tears: “I am sorry. I love my son.” A manager found Ms. Fisher inside the bathroom of the 5 Boro Burger restaurant at 976 Avenue of Americas at about 2:20 p.m. on March 30, 2015. Gavriel was on her lap, lips blue, foaming from the nose. She told a paramedic “the devil made her put him to sleep,” and made a smothering gesture with her cupped hand, according to a criminal complaint. Before Gavriel’s birth, Ms. Fisher had committed a string of violent acts, including setting fire to her mother’s boyfriend, pouring burning oil on her own boyfriend’s face during a breakup, and attempting to kill her aunt and herself, according to records and interviews with relatives. She was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia in 2011 during a three-month stay at Rikers Island on a different charge. Doctors said she heard voices tell... Link to the full article to read more

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