A Pennsylvania woman who walked away from her ageing mother, leaving the 88-year-old mired in faeces and without food or water, has been sentenced to prison.
Janice Harmes, 67, pleaded no contest last week in Lancaster County Court to a charge of third-degree murder stemming from the January death of her invalid mother, Janet Bastendorf.
"It's inexcusable and reprehensible," Judge James Cullen admonished Harmes, who claimed she was only honouring her mother's wish to die at home.
"Mom and I had an understanding," Harmes said in court. "I made a mistake and listened to her."
The judge dismissed her excuses.
"This may be a lot things," Cullen said, according to the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster, Pa., "but a mistake is not one of them."
Cullen sentenced her to a minimum of six years behind bars and a maximum of 12.
The judge also chided her for not taking her mother to a hospital or ordering hospice care.
Harmes was her mother's primary care giver.
The elderly woman died from sepsis, a virulent infection caused by an untended bed sore.
For the 10 days leading up to her death, Bastendorf had languished in a faeces-filled diaper with no access to food or water. Harmes took her mother's cell phone when she walked out.
- NYDN
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