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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Michigan woman has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect charges in the drug-related Indiana death of her boyfriend’s 10-year-old daughter.
An Elkhart County judge sentenced Erica Reschke, 31, on Thursday to 16 years, with three years suspended, on a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.
The Cassopolis, Michigan, woman also received two years in prison on a neglect of a dependent charge, with the two sentences to be served concurrently, The Elkhart Truth reported.
Investigators said Reschke and her boyfriend, 35-year-old Brandon Hobbs, did not seek medical help before his 10-year-old daughter died in June 2018 after ingesting methamphetamine.
The child, who had autism and an eating disorder, had vomited several times before the couple noticed she wasn’t breathing and called 911. She was pronounced dead.
An autopsy showed the girl had multiple foreign objects in her bowels related to her pica eating disorder. Her cause of death was ruled bowel obstruction and meth toxicity.
Reschke initially denied knowing how the girl came in contact with the meth. But police said she later told investigators that she had brought the drug to the Elkhart house where she and Hobbs were staying, and hid it from him.
Police said Reschke also acknowledged that the 10-year-old girl could have had access to the meth and should not have been in the same room with the drug because of her eating disorder.
Hobbs pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent in June 2019 and was sentenced to three years in prison and one year home detention.
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