A sick daycare worker who tried hanging a crying toddler is spared prison time.
Minnesota prosecutors said former daycare provider Nataliia Karia hung a toddler from a noose, and ran over two men with her minivan, but instead of 13 years in prison, she got 10 years on probation with 20 months credited for jail time.
“I apologize and I don’t know if you will be able to forgive me,” she said through an interpreter in court Monday, according to CBS 8. “I have no excuse for what I did.”
The 43-year-old immigrant let go of a possible insanity plea and pleaded guilty instead to the attempted murder charge in February for trying to hang a little boy from a noose in November 2016. The home where the incident took place is located in the 2700 block of Humboldt Avenue S. The 16-month-old boy survived the attack after a parent who was dropping off their child removed the noose from around the toddler’s neck.
Karia also admitted to Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam to third-degree assault charges for hitting a pedestrian, another driver, as well as a bicyclist as she was racing away in her minivan.
According to reports, after leaving behind the trail of mayhem, she was about to jump off a freeway overpass in Minneapolis before being apprehended by officers and arrested.
Judge Quam agreed with doctors that she was a “low-risk” to offend, and attributed her actions to a “perfect storm of factors” unlikely to ever happen again, according to reports. He called this one of the hardest cases he ever had.
The authorities said that the week of the incident, the toddler spent some time in the hospital but did not sustain any permanent physical damage; a scan indicated no brain injury. However, the toddler’s mother said their boy had nightmares and underwent therapy sessions.
Christina Warren, the prosecutor, had pushed the court for a 13-year jail term for Karia and this had initially raised some doubts in the minds of the jury about whether she could be supervised properly outside of jail or receive the proper care she needed to get her mental health back in order. Warren had written in a court filing that “instead of being the person most able and willing to protect [the boy] from harm, she … left him hanging by a noose around his neck in her basement”.
Karia‘s attorneys argued for no further incarceration.
They cited a few ways that she had already been punished and this included her time already spent in jail, losing out on her child-care career, time as a parent to her children, and the loss of more than $100,000.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: Taphaps, Star Tribune, AOL News, CBS 8
