ST. PAUL - Azaria Jones should be celebrating the end of school, enjoying the summer and preparing for the arrival of her baby cousin.
But her future was cut short when her mother drowned the 6-year-old in a bathtub two days before Christmas 2014, her father’s family said in a statement read at Kayla Marie Jones’ sentencing Wednesday.
“When a 6-year-old child is murdered, there really is no excuse,” said Ramsey County District Judge Teresa Warner, who upheld a plea agreement reached in early May.
Jones, 26, was sentenced to 16½ years in prison, at least 11 of which she’ll spend at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.
When she goes on supervised release or completes her sentence, Jones will return to the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter, Minn., and restart her treatment. She was committed there indefinitely in April 2015.
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The sentence is just over five years less than the usual, minimum sentence and takes into account Jones’ history of mental illness. Jones will receive credit for the two years she has already served at St. Peter.
