*The former Mississippi cop who left her baby girl to die inside a hot car while she had sex with her supervisor has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Cassie Barker, 29, was sentenced on Monday after she pleaded guilty to culpable negligence, CBS affiliate WLOX and the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.
Barker will spend the next 20 years in prison after leaving her daughter to die inside a hot car while she had sex with her boss at his house.
Barker was initially indicted for second-degree murder but she accepted a plea agreement to a lesser charge.
At her sentencing hearing, she broke down while apologizing to her daughter, Cheyenne Hyer. The child died on Sept. 30. 2016, after Barker went to the home of her supervisor, Clark Ladner, at the end of her shift. She left the car running with the air conditioner on to combat the scorching temperature, but the vent wasn’t blowing cold air, CBS News reported.
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Judge Larry Bourgeois sentences Cassie Barker to 20 years in prison. @WLOX pic.twitter.com/UkNHGB6cXY
— Ray Price WLOX (@_RayPrice) April 1, 2019
She left her daughter strapped in a car seat for four hours as she slept inside Ladner’s house. When she finally returned to the car, baby girl was unresponsive.
“I want to say that the only person I owe an apology to was my daughter because no one else was in her life but me,” Barker said.
Barker and Ladner were reportedly fired after the child’s death.
Authorities said Barker left the child unattended in a car on a previous occasion when she went shopping; prompting a passerby to call police.
“I don’t know what I could ever do to you that could be worse than what you’ve already experienced,” Harrison County Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois told her in court, WLOX reported. “You will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind.”
Prior to her sentencing, it was revealed that Barker is expecting a second child. Her attorney confirmed to PEOPLE that she plans to put the baby up for adoption after she gives birth.
While Barker “has accepted responsibility” for her daughter’s death, her attorney said “she hasn’t been the same since this happened. It’s a very sad case. Her life will never be the same again.”
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