Free Republic

A judge in Schenectady County has handed down the maximum sentence of 25 years to life to a mother convicted of the depraved indifference murder of her 11-month-old daughter, Halo Branton. During the trial, the court reviewed harrowing evidence: video footage showed Nelson placing her infant into a pitch-black, 8-foot-deep hole in freezing conditions and walking away. Despite having 28 minutes to change her course, she left the child to succumb to hypothermia while she sought shelter. In an emotional sentencing hearing, the court dismantled the defense's argument that this was an accident, citing the defendant's conscious decisions and lack...

A precious baby girl with beautiful blue eyes was killed by her mother after she tossed her into a shed that drops into a river, a court heard. Halo Branton, a 10-month-old from Hudson, New York, was found dead underneath drainage pipes on March 10, 2024 on General Electric’s Schenectady campus. The helpless baby was found unresponsive after her mother, Persia Nelson, then 24, left her for dead, according to prosecutors. Halo died from exposure and hypothermia. Nelson, now 26, appeared in court Wednesday in Schenectady wearing a white top and black blazer as closing arguments wrapped up in her...