YORK, S.C. — A 27-year-old Rock Hill woman was sentenced to 18 years in prison for failing to protect her toddler from deadly child abuse.
Circuit Judge Dan Hall imposed the term on Lakeisha Jackson during a hearing Thursday. She pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse and two counts of child neglect and abuse.
Jackson has been in jail since April 2018 when her son, Miguel Williams, was found dead in a home in Rock Hill.
Jackson and the child’s father, Bruce Leroy Williams, initially claimed the boy drowned in a motel bathtub, a prosecutor said. But police found that the child had been beaten and suffered injuries that included broken ribs and organ damage.
The parents drank alcohol and took drugs for hours and then claimed the child drowned at a motel in a bathtub, prosecutor Erin Joyner said. The two then blamed each other for the child’s injuries, Joyner said.
Williams was sentenced to 23 years in prison a year ago after pleading guilty to homicide by child abuse.
