Teen who killed tot sentenced

There was no answer Monday to the question on everyone’s mind as a Franklin County judge prepared to sentence a woman who was 17 when she stabbed her 19-month-old daughter to death in their South Side home.

“The No. 1 question I have is, why did this happen?” Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt asked the attorney for LaChelle Anderson.

“I’m not sure that she can even answer the question for us,” defense attorney Elizabeth Wachsman replied.

Anderson, now 18, did not provide an explanation when given a chance to address the judge.

She read from a statement, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue and speaking so softly that her words were difficult to hear.

“I won’t sit here and try to tell you how sorry I am because no words will ever convey (it),” she said.

Beatty Blunt sentenced her to 20 years in adult prison after Anderson pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and child endangering. The plea and sentence were included in a plea agreement that moved the case from juvenile to adult court last month.

She originally was charged with a delinquency count of murder, a charge that in adult court carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.

Assistant Prosecutor James Lowe said Anderson was offered the chance to plead to the lesser charge as a recognition of her mental illness.

Based on psychological evaluations conducted before her case was transferred to adult court, Anderson was found to be mentally ill but competent to stand trial. It was determined that her mental illness did not prevent her knowing right from wrong, eliminating a notguilty-by-reason-of-insanity defense.

Anderson called 911 on Sept. 2, 2017, asking for help because her child, Lalanna Sharpe, needed medical attention and was not moving. When police and paramedics arrived at the house in the 800 block of South 22nd Street, they found Anderson covered in blood and the girl with multiple stab wounds.

Lowe said Anderson initially said a stranger had entered the house and stabbed her child, but later told officers she stabbed her daughter after seeing visions of a child molester in bed beside the girl.

Anderson told the judge her daughter was “my world and my hero. ... To me, she is not gone. I still pray for her and sing for her.”