Jail inmates are bullying Iowa mother who let infant son rot to death in maggot-infested diaper, reveals docu
MITCHELLVILLE, IOWA: A mother who is in jail for letting her infant son rot to death while she got high on crystal meth has complained that she is being bullied by other inmates since they are disgusted by her crime.
Cheyanne Harris was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole in February 2019 after her son’s body was found on a baby swing in a sweltering bedroom covered in a urine-soaked blanket, wearing a maggot-infested diaper. The 22-year-old has said that other convicts at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mitchelville, Iowa, are making her life a living hell.
Harris recently appeared on a UK documentary, called ‘Locked up with the Lifers’, with presenter Stacey Dooley, where she shared that she was “struggling” behind bars. “Other people here say that it gets better, that it won’t be so hard. But in all reality I think that’s bulls***,” she revealed in the documentary.
“I don’t think I really have very many friends right now,” the killer mother said as she admitted it “depends on the day” if she wants to live. She also revealed that if she had not been high on drugs, her son would have been alive. "If I hadn't been high on meth, it never would have happened. I was not a good person when I was on meth and trying to be a mum. I wasn't. He was extremely neglected," she said in the documentary, which aired on BBC Two on April 19 night.
Dooley later explained in the documentary that “not all murderers are equal” in jail. “Child killers are considered the lowest of the low, but she’s going to have to find a way to cope,” the presenter added.
According to reports, Harris was being sent back into the general population after she spent time alone following a fight with a woman who taunted her for her crimes. However, when she came back on the wing, other prisoners started abusing her.
One of the inmates can be heard shouting to the camera crew: “Did she tell you what she did? You wouldn’t be filming her.” In response, Harris said herself sarcastically: “Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun.”
Another convict named Tara told Dooley, “Yeah they’ll f*** with her a lot [because of what she’s in here for].” When the presenter asked her if the abuse will continue, Tara said: “Oh yeah. If not worse. Sometimes people like that, they might jump her in the bathroom.”
Harris’ son Sterling Koehn was found lifeless and bleeding from his mouth on August 30, 2017, at an apartment in Alta Vista, Chickasaw County. An autopsy of the boy revealed that he died of malnutrition, dehydration, and infection.
Zachary Koehn, the 29-year-old father of the child, was also sentenced to life in prison on December 4, 2018, for the death. Koehn reportedly made $450,000 a year and even had access to health insurance but witnesses told the court that the apartment had smelt of urine, feces, and general decay.