Mom gets 25 to life for murder, torture of 3-year-old left in hot car in Rancho Cordova
An Arkansas woman has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, convicted last month of the murder of her 3-year-old daughter, who was found dead by Rancho Cordova police in the back seat of an SUV in 2017.
Angela Phakhin, 29, was sentenced Friday by Judge Allen Summer. Phakhin was found guilty of murder by jury June 25. The jury also unanimously found her guilty of premeditated murder and felony torture in the June 2017 death of her daughter, Maiya, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Wednesday.
Phakhin and her fiancé, Untwan Smith, reportedly came with Maiya to the Sacramento area from Arkansas.
On June 28, 2017, Rancho Cordova police officers discovered the couple’s vehicle parked the wrong way on Rod Beaudry Drive near River Bend Park, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time.
The DA’s news release says that Phakhin and Smith exposed Maiya to “extreme summer temperatures” over a two-week span in June 2017. Maiya died after being left in a hot car for 9 1/2 hours; the previous day, she had been left in the car for 4 1/2 hours, the news release said.
Phakhin told law enforcement she left her daughter in the hot vehicle “to remove the lustful demons from Maiya,” the DA’s news release said. Phakhin also reportedly ignored repeated warnings to take her daughter to a cooling shelter.
Smith awaits trial for the same charges of murder and felony murder torture.
This story was originally published July 22, 2019 at 11:48 AM.
