WACO, Texas — Former Waco daycare owner Marian Fraser, 59, was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison for the death of 4-month-old Clara Felton, according to Josh Tetens the McLennan County District Attorney.
Her sentencing comes just days after she was found guilty, again, of administering a lethal dosage of Benadryl to Felton at her daycare, Spoiled Rotten, on March 4, 2013.
She was initially found guilty back in 2015, but her conviction was overturned, which granted her a re-trial.
During the re-trial, the jury made up of six men and six women heard from witnesses, forensic analysts and audio transcripts from the 2015 trial.
Fraser's defense team argued that text messages between Fraser and Felton's mother showed an approval to administer the child Benadryl as she was sick at the time.
However, transcripts from the 2015 trial showed Fraser maintaining that she had no idea how the Benadryl got inside the baby's bottle.
The transcripts also showed that investigators found texts from Fraser to her daughter, requesting that she hide the bottles of medicine at the daycare as they were not properly labeled according to state protocols.
An added wrinkle to this retrial occurred when one of the jurors was removed from the trial. It was discovered that the juror was following a social media account that was giving commentary on the trial and was attempting to sway the decisions of other jury members.
Despite this, the judge denied discussions of a mistrial.
Fraser will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years in prison, Tetens said.