A Florida daycare worker was sentenced to nearly a year in county jail after a toddler in her care died in a hot van last summer, multiple outlets report.
On Friday, Louvenia Johnson, 29, was sentenced to 11 months and 15 days in jail and to 10 years probation in the death of 3-year-old Jai’Nier Barnes, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
Johnson, who worked as a day care teacher at the In His Arms Christian Academy in Pensacola, is not allowed to work with children during her probation, WKRG reports.
On June 20, Johnson pleaded no contest to aggravated manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
Johnson had faced a recommended minimum sentence of 13 years in prison.
On June 27, a jury found her co-defendant, Cornel McGee, 27, who worked as a driver for the center, not guilty of aggravated manslaughter, WKRG reports.
Johnson and McGee were arrested on Aug. 23, five days after Jai’Nier died after being left in the day care center van just outside of the facility, local station WEAR reported at the time.
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On the day Jai’Nier died, McGee picked the girl up at her home in Pensacola and drove her and other children to the center, WKRG reports.
After his trial, McGee told the Pensacola News Journal that Johnson would unbuckle each child one by one, say the child’s name, and then take them off the van as McGee marked them as accounted for in a transportation log.
But on the day of the girl’s death, he said Johnson got distracted by another child and put Jai’Nier back down after picking her up, and the child fell asleep.
Johnson and McGee each signed the transportation log saying no children were in the van, WKRG reports.
Jai’Nier was inside the van for about four hours, USA Today reports.
She was discovered inside — in distress — at about 1 p.m. by another driver, USA Today reports.
Daycare workers performed CPR on the child. She was taken to a local hospital where she died of hyperthermia.
PEOPLE’s attempts to reach Johnson’s attorney were not immediately successful.
