WHAT’S THE VERDICT?
Kelly Turner, 43, reached a deal with prosecutors this January
– weeks before she was due to stand trial.
She pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse negligently causing death, theft and charitable fraud, but the murder charge was dismissed.
District attorney John Kellner described her crime as despicable. ‘This defendant deserves to serve years behind bars,’ he said, adding that she ‘approved surgery after surgery and insisted Olivia was not getting better’.
In February, Judge Patricia Herron sentenced Turner to 16 years in prison. She ordered Turner must never profit from Olivia’s death.
‘Whether that be because of a movie consultation or book consultation, or book deals,’ she said, and that money from any such deals be donated to the charities defrauded.
A tearful Turner was silent as a video montage of Olivia smiling, singing and dancing – made by Olivia’s grandfather Lonnie Gautreau – played.
Calling for changes in the law to help protect other children from medical abuse, her grandfather wept in court over missed opportunities to alert authorities.
‘If anybody spoke up and protected Olivia, she would be here today,’ he said.