Sentencing in hot car death

Woman left daughter, 3, in hot car for more than nine hours to expel ‘lustful demons.’

A mother gets 25 years to life for leaving 3-year-old daughter in a vehicle to expel ‘lustful demons.’

A California mother has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, whom she left in a car for more than nine hours on a hot summer day in 2017.

Angela Phakhin, 29, was convicted last month of firstdegree murder in the case.

Phakhin and her fiance, 48-year-old Untwan Smith, moved with the girl, named Maiya, to the Sacramento area from Arkansas and were living in their SUV, authorities said at the time.

After the death of her daughter, Phakhin told police she and Smith were “trying to remove lustful demons” from the child, according to Sacramento County prosecutors.

Over a two-week period in June 2017, Phakhin and Smith exposed Maiya to extreme summer temperatures by leaving her in a car for hours. Phakhin had been warned repeatedly to take Maiya to a cooling shelter but she refused, prosecutors said.

On one occasion, the couple left the girl in a car for 4½ hours. The next day, they left her in a car for 9½ hours, which led to her death, prosecutors said.

Rancho Cordova police officers arrested Phakhin and Smith on June 28, 2017, after they discovered the couple’s vehicle parked the wrong way on Rod Beaudry Drive.

Officers approached the couple and discovered Smith had an outstanding warrant from Arkansas. When they began to search the vehicle, authorities found the girl under blankets in the back seat. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.

Smith is awaiting trial on a murder charge, according to court records.