An Iowa mother whose son was found dead in an infant swing has been sentenced to life in prison.
On Tuesday, 22 year old Cheyanne Harris was sentenced to life with no chance of parole after a jury found her guilty of First Degree Murder and Child Endangerment Causing Death. During her trial, prosecutors said that Harris' son, four month old Sterling Koehn, had been left to die in an infant swing in the summer of 2017.
On August 30th, 2017, Sterling's lifeless body was found in a sweltering apartment bedroom in Alta Vista, Iowa. When he was found, the baby's diaper was filled with maggots, an indication he had been there, in the same unchanged diaper, for at least a week, if not two. An autopsy showed that Sterling had died from a combination of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection.
Harris' lawyer argued that although the baby's death was tragic, it was not intended, as his client was suffering from postpartum depression and was self-medicating to cope. Prosecutors said Zachary Koehn, Sterling's father, was a meth addict who was supplying Harris with drugs during that time. Koehn even admitted to investigators that he took better care of his dog than his son. While Sterling was rotting to death in his swing, the couple continued to care for and feed their two year old daughter.
Both Harris and Koehn have been sentenced to Life in Prison with no chance for parole.