Unlicensed daycare owner to serve 19 years for murder and child abuse over death of five-month-old boy

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A North Dakota woman who ran an unlicensed daycare will serve 19 years in prison over the death of a five-month-old boy she was looking after.

Patricia Wick, of Jamestown, was sentenced on Tuesday after she pleaded guilty in January to felony charges of murder and child abuse and a misdemeanour of operating an unlicensed daycare centre in Carrington.

Prosecutors told the court that Wick, 48, caused head and neck injuries to the five-month-old boy, who died in September 2022.

An autopsy in the case concluded that the baby boy died from “complications of blunt force head and neck trauma” while he was in Wick’s care at her home and ruled his death a homicide.

Wick told investigators she had been looking after the victim and at least one other child at the time of the incident, adding that the baby had been sleeping after being fed, but woke up crying.

She said she moved him onto a blanket in her living room and left him while she attended to another child in the kitchen but returned when she heard the infant coughing and found him vomiting, at which point she called 911, according to KVLY.

Wick later admitted that she “may have put (the baby) down too hard,” was not gentle with him and was frustrated with him that day, according to the affidavit.

The Jamestown resident is also accused of injuring another six-year-old infant, who allegedly broke his arm while in Wick’s care after falling off a swing in her backyard just two weeks before the five-month-old child died, court documents state.

Authorities allege Wick did not immediately report the child’s injury to his parents.

She was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Tuesday on the murder charge, with 20 years suspended and credit for over a year already served, meaning she will serve up to 19 years in prison.

Wick was also ordered to register as an offender against children and pay $810 in court fees on the child abuse charge, as well as serving 10 years’ supervised probation,

The judge imposed lesser, concurrent sentences on the other charges.

Following the five-month-old child’s death, a tribute was posted to him on the website of Evans Funeral Home in Carrington, which read: “He could warm the room with his sweet smile and perfectly placed dimple. Looking at you with his big brown eyes from behind his beautiful long lashes made your heart melt and your soul be full.”

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