Pa. mom gets 9 to 20 years in death of 4-month-old daughter

LANCASTER — A mother has been sentenced to nine to 20 years in prison in the strangulation death of her 4-month-old daughter almost two years ago.

Court documents indicate that Candace Parrow, 25, pleaded no contest but mentally ill Monday to criminal homicide, aggravated assault and strangulation.

Lancaster County authorities said police found the child unresponsive July 2018 in an Elizabethtown apartment. Parrow said she put her daughter down to sleep and returned about 10 minutes later to find her unresponsive. Prosecutors said she was very distraught and made statements about being “blamed again for this.”

Judge Jeffery Wright acknowledged Parrow’s mental health diagnosis but said she was intelligent enough to know the significance of her actions, prosecutors said in a statement. Defense attorneys argued that their client had “intellectual disabilities and suffered from postpartum depression.” the prosecutor’s office said.

LNP reported that authorities in Syracuse, New York took another look at the October 2016 death of Parrow’s 3-month-old son, D’Yante Gillette, after the Pennsylvania charges were filed but maintained their findings that his death wasn’t a homicide,