Nurse goes to prison for teen's death

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - A nurse who let a disabled teenager starve to death is going to prison.

Mollie Parsons was hired to care for 14 year-old Makayla Norman, who had cerebral palsy, but the child weighed just 28 pounds when she died in March of 2011.

Mollie Parsons didn't say anything in court Wednesday afternoon except "guilty".

On the other hand, Judge Mary Katherine Huffman didn't hold back.

She reacted strongly to a photo of Makayla that would have been used had a trial occurred.

"I couldn't begin to describe to somebody what I saw. That poor child looked worse than any concentration camp victim I have ever seen, in any photo I have ever seen," said Judge Mary Katherine Huffman, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Huffman went on to say she thinks this case is a "travesty of justice" because there wasn't anything more serious that Parsons could have been charged with.

The 42 year-old former nurse pleaded guilty to failure to care for a functionally impaired person, involuntary manslaughter and tampering with records.

Huffman sentenced Parsons to the maximum ten years.

Prosecutors say they are pleased with the maximum sentence given the circumstances.

"She was paid to care for this child, 5 to 6 days a week, 8 hours a day and she probably wasn't showing up most of the time, and if she was, then she was ignoring the clear neglect that this child was facing at the hands of this child's mother and, unfortunately, this child didn't have the ability to speak or let anyone know that she was starving and that she was rotting to death," said Tracey Ballard-Tangeman, Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor.

Parsons has already served one year of that ten year sentence.

There is a separate federal investigation into Medicaid fraud that is ongoing.