Mom gets 18 years for killing disabled son, 8
NEW YORK — A self-made health-care millionaire who fatally drugged her developmentally disabled child five years ago in a luxury New York City hotel room was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in prison by a judge who said he disbelieved much of her defence and scolded her for not showing remorse.
Gigi Jordan, a nurse-turned-pharmaceutical-entrepreneur, claimed her son Jude Mirra had been sexually abused for years by his biological father and other men in her life. She argued she killed the boy in February 2010 to keep him safe from her exhusband who was planning to kill her and take her money, leaving Jude defenceless to more sexual torture. She then said she tried to kill herself.
But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Solomon dismissed the notion that her nearly mute, autistic child was repeatedly abused, noting time and again that no credible evidence on the record substantiated those claims.
“All of her money, all of her resources, she decided to kill him,” he said. “There were so many things she could have done.”
Though charged with murder, she was found guilty by a jury in November of a lesser manslaughter charge. The jury decided she was under “extreme emotional disturbance” when she gave Jude Mirra the fatal dose of Ambien and Xanax, believing killing him was the only way to save him.
Solomon also said he didn’t believe her suicide attempt was genuine and admonished her for giving an interview to the Dr. Phil TV show while the jury was deliberating. And he wondered why she wasn’t more repentant.
Jordan, 54, has spent the past five years jailed on Rikers Island, time that will count toward her prison term. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence.
Her attorneys said they were disappointed in the lengthy prison term.
Prosecutors said the killing was intentional and carried out because Jordan, now 54 and estimated to be worth $40 million US, could no longer care for the needs of her son.