Gainesville pair sentenced to 30 years in prison for neglect that resulted in death of 3-year-old and injury to another child
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Donrea Avril McLaughlin, 23, and Sean D. Lee, 28, have been sentenced to 30 years in prison, followed by five years of probation, after entering pleas of nolo contendere to charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect with great bodily harm.
The pair were arrested in Atlanta in September 2023 after McLaughlin’s 3-year-old daughter died at a local hospital and have remained in the Alachua County Jail since they were transported there from Atlanta.
On Friday, September 1, 2023, GPD officers and EMS responded to the area of 4800 NW 43rd Street after a caller reported that a three-year-old child was not breathing. The child was transported to the hospital, where she was later pronounced deceased.
McLaughlin reportedly told the investigating officers that she had been napping for several hours and when she was awakened by Lee, her boyfriend, they found the child unresponsive.
However, further investigation revealed that McLaughlin and Lee had gone to work that day and had left the child and her young sibling alone and unsupervised for about eight hours. Detectives reported that the pair did not arrange for childcare and nobody even checked on the children during that time; the couple found the child unresponsive when they returned to the residence. The other child also reportedly received treatment at a nearby hospital the same night.
As detectives continued to investigate the incident, they reportedly found a history of prolonged abuse and neglect that contributed to the death of one child and injury to the other.
McLaughlin and Lee fled to Atlanta, where they were later arrested and transported to the Alachua County Jail.
The maximum sentence for the charges was 35 years in both cases, and each of them agreed to testify truthfully against the other as a condition of their pleas.
I’m glad they’ll have a lot of time in prison to contemplate what pieces of 💩 they are.
I hope they have an absolutely awful experience in prison. Disgraceful, despicable people.
I hope the injured child has recovered and is able to lead a normal life.
Raises!! They could not afford a sitter clearly. Yes..100% wrong. They was at work not a drug house.
Did you skip the part where it said they found there was prolonged abuse and neglect? The problem isn’t that they couldn’t afford a babysitter.
You, Ms Marsha are the issue. They fled the state knowing what they had did. These are bad people and parents it had little to do with being able to afford day care
Go back to school and learn how to speak. Obviously a “breeder”
Marsha, if you can’t feed em don’t breed em.
According to the Democrats, if this pair had just killed this child a little earlier when it was still in the womb, all would be okay. Murder is murder. Thou shalt not kill the born or the unborn.
How is this relevant?
Try to focus on the article – sentencing of two lowlifes who contributed to the death of their child, and injuries to another, instead of bringing up something completely irrelevant.
She actually got 2 years in prison and he got 30 years in prison.
The sentencing document signed by Judge Colaw says 30 years; the court docket text says 2.5 years. We have reached out for clarification.
The State Attorney’s office confirmed that Donrea McLaughlin was sentenced to 30 years in prison followed by 5 years probation. They are uncertain why there is a 2.5-year sentence in the docket line.
They will be out in 18 months. Ambassadors in 2 years.
They agreed to testify against each other??? Bet that testimony will be a hoot: “I din do nuffin, she did it” “I din do nuffin, he did it.”
Seriously, why do these people have children they obviously don’t want? Is it for the ADC? Increased welfare payments? These poor little ones, even if they live through their parents, how can they not be scared for life?
This sentence is nothing. Plus-nothing about making sure neither of them will be 100% prevented from ever having a child again. Neither should be able to have a child ever again–having children after something like this is a privilege, not a right. Remove it. Permanently.
2 less miscreants on our streets!