JOPLIN, Mo. — A Missouri woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing her fiancé’s 2-year-old daughter by repeatedly slamming the girl’s head on a floor when she refused to eat.
The Joplin Globe reports that 22-year-old Tearra Olson was sentenced Tuesday for second-degree murder and abuse of a child resulting in the August 2015 death of Emmalata “Emma” Hoeft.
The girl’s father, Albert O’Connor, is serving seven years in prison for child endangerment in the case. He admitted to investigators that he and Olson left the girl home alone on four of the days in the week preceding her death while they went to work.
He also admitted to having witnessed Olson being abusive before the girl’s death, including stuffing a sock in her mouth when she was crying.