Waukegan 'monster mom' gets 43 years in prison for killing daughter
A Lake County judge called Nicholette Lawrence a "monster mom" before sentencing her to 43 years in prison for killing her 11-year-old daughter with a punch in the stomach.
Judge James Booras said Lawrence had a "duty to guide and protect your child" and asked, "What mother would do this to her own child?"
"This defendant failed her life and her child's life," Booras said, referring to the girl, Raashanai Coley. "I can't understand the fear, the torment, the anguish this child went through."
Lawrence, 34, of Waukegan was awarded credit for time already spent in Lake County jail. However, Booras said she "will serve the totality of the years you have been sentenced to," and not receive good time credit while in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Lawrence pleaded guilty in October to one count of first-degree murder. Prosecutors dropped 13 other counts of murder in exchange for her plea. Had the case gone to trial, Lawrence could have been sentenced to life in prison.
Raashanai weighed between 55 and 67 pounds when she was punched by Lawrence on Sept. 3, 2014, authorities said. The force of the blow to the child's emaciated body caused her ribs to puncture the stomach lining, authorities said.
Paramedics and police officers who testified during the two-day sentencing hearing last week said they saw vomit throughout the room when they were called to the family's house Sept. 5. Raashanai was bloated and unresponsive when they tended to her, they said.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital that day.
Horrific details of the final years of Raashanai's life emerged during the sentencing hearing.
On video, Raashanai's 6-year-old brother said she slept in a locked closet next to her parents' bed. It was equipped with only a sink for her to use as a toilet. The boy also said Raashanai wasn't allowed to eat dinner at the table with the rest of the family and didn't receive Christmas presents.
He said she had been beaten with a stick, while authorities testified she had been beaten with a belt. A video of the belt attack was played in court.
Lawrence also previously admitted to police she had hit Raashanai with an extension cord, and authorities found evidence of bruises and old cigarette burns on her body.
"The judge hit the nail on the head when he said the treatment of this girl was inhumane. It was pure evil," Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim said.
Officials have not identified the girl's father, saying he has not been criminally implicated at this time.
Defense attorney Keith Grant argued Lawrence was caught in a "cycle of violence" throughout her life, and was physically and sexually abused by her parents.
Booras said he understood the mitigating factors but stressed "the cruelty, the torment, the torture cannot be completely attributed to that."
"You wouldn't think humans would do this to other humans," he said. "Animals don't do this to their own."