Daycare owner, worker get suspended sentences after death

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The owner of an Indianapolis daycare and the lone worker on duty when an infant died while strapped into a car seat have received suspended sentences and ordered not to work in child care.

A judge Friday sentenced 56-year-old worker Karen Tharpe to eight hours per week of community service for one year, a suspended one-year sentence and two years on probation for reckless supervision by a child care provider.

Investigators say Tharpe is believed to have been the only employee supervising 36 children at Miracles and Blessings Daycare Ministry in Speedway when 10-month-old Taliah Brigham was discovered unresponsive in an empty room on April 7, 2016.

Fifty-three-year-old daycare owner Jacqueline Murray also was placed on probation Thursday and ordered out of child car after pleading guilty to child neglect.