Global Courant
A woman accused of abandoning her child in a box next to a South Carolina highway in 2008 is serving four years in prison.
Thursday’s sentencing wraps up a case that had gone cold until police arrested Jennifer Sahr three years ago in the death of the newborn known as “Baby Boy Horry.” Sahr was a student at Coastal Carolina University when the baby was abandoned.
Circuit Court Judge Paul Burch handed down a 10-year sentence, with four years suspended and additional time off for a period Sahr spent under house arrest. Formerly known as Jennifer Rickel, she awaited trial in Pensacola, Florida, with her husband and two children – a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old.
The children were “the most important” consideration in the sentence, Burch said, and he prayed that they will be taken care of while their mother is incarcerated.
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The mother of “Baby Boy Horry” has been sentenced to four years in prison for the death of a baby she left beside a South Carolina highway.
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Sahr faced between two and 30 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. She filed a so-called Alford plea last September, in which she maintained her innocence while acknowledging that the evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict if the case went to trial.
The prosecution acknowledged that Sahr has lived a “great life” since 2008. She has a loving family, he said, and graduated cum laude in 2010. But jail time was needed to send a “powerful message” about leaving a baby to die, the prosecutor told the judge.
Ronald Woodham III, Baby Horry’s father, told the judge he felt sorry for Sahr but wondered what message a “blow on the wrist” would send.
Sahr’s lawyer argued that his client does not pose a threat and that a probationary period would be more appropriate. He said Sahr did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth in the middle of the night, making it unlikely that her jail term would send a message to someone in a similar position.
