Georgia mom Porscha Mickens, who was accused of starving her daughter to death, will not serve time in jail. According to a report by WSB-TV, the judge sentenced her instead to 20 years of probation on Tuesday, April 26.
The 30-year-old Buford native accepted a plea deal on second-degree murder and child cruelty charges. Porscha and her husband, Jerrail Maurice Mickens, were both arrested back in October 2020, four months after their 5-year-old daughter, Kylie Mickens, died at an Atlanta hospital. Jerrail died in a motorcycle crash while out on bond back in November 2020.
According to the Hall County Sheriff's Office, Kylie weighed approximately just seven pounds at the time of her death. Detectives determined after an investigation and an autopsy that the cause of the young girl's death was homicide. More specifically, Kylie's death was caused by "dehydration and malnutrition due to medical neglect."
Kylie Mickens looked like a mummy when she died
According to a report by the Gainesville Times, Assistant District Attorney Anna Fowler argued in court that Kylie looked like a mummy at the time of her death. Kylie reportedly weighed less than 6 pounds at birth and about one pound more when she died.
Fowler added that when Kylie was admitted to the hospital, the report of every doctor who saw her stated that she suffered from the worst case of malnutrition and dehydration that the doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta had ever seen.
The defense argued, however, that Kylie's death was due to 1p36 deletion syndrome. According to the National Institutes of Health, 1p36 deletion syndrome is a rare chromosomal disorder which causes abnormalities of the skeleton, weak muscle tone, intellectual disability, and difficulty in swallowing.
Porscha blames Kylie's death on her medical condition
Porscha took the stand during the murder trial and said that Kylie both gained and lost weight on a day-to-day basis due to her condition. According to People, Porscha reportedly testified that she did not realize her daughter was dying. Mickens said that when Kylie's body shut down, she had seen that before, so she did not think that she was dying.
Family members and friends claimed that Porscha provided care for her daughter Kylie and had taken her to more than a dozen medical professionals to get treatment for her illness. While the defense argued to have Porscha serve 25 years of prison time, Judge C. Andrew Fuller ultimately decided to hand down a sentence of probation only.
Fuller spoke to Porscha in her sentencing, saying that the court can only hope that she will suffer a greater punishment simply by the fact that she lost Kylie and she will not have her daughter for the rest of her life. Fuller added that it should go without saying that the court's sentence does not lessen the value of the young girl's life.
