South Carolina woman sentenced to life for beating 3-year-old to death denied early release over terminal cancer
LANCASTER, SOUTH CAROLINA: A South Carolina woman who was sentenced to life in prison last year for beating a toddler to death was denied parole despite claims she has less than a year left to live due to terminal cancer.
Kayla Marie Cook, 28, had been arrested after three-year-old Lillian Shroeder was found unresponsive at the Lancaster home where they lived on December 18, 2017, according to the Lancaster News. The toddler was rushed to the Springs Memorial Hospital for treatment but was later pronounced dead.
When questioned, Cook, who was alone with Lillian at the home at the time, claimed she had left the young girl in the bathroom while she cleaned the place when she heard a "thunk." She said she went to check on her and found her lying face-up in the tub, unresponsive but looking around and breathing, and notified a neighbor. But that, by the time first responders arrived, it was a little too late.
However, that version of events was almost immediately called into question when the doctors who had worked to save Lillian found bruises all over her body, as well as discoloration, and an untreated fracture on her arm that had just begun to heal. An autopsy determined that the toddler's cause of death was swelling of the brain due to blunt force injury to the head and that a contributing factor was internal bleeding.
Cook was initially admitted into a behavioral health treatment facility in Davidson, North Carolina, for 11 days, but told to come back to Lancaster, where police were expected to arrest her. However, she went to Kingston, where was then apprehended and extradited back to South Carolina.
The 28-year-old was convicted of homicide by child abuse in August 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. That life meant just one year behind bars, even her public defenders likely did not know.
During her trial, her defense team had told the court that Cook had large tumors on the side of the neck and needed medical treatment. A bond was initially denied, only for a judge to release after she was officially diagnosed with stage three spindle cell sarcoma, as well as another type of cancer that had been found during surgery to remove the tumors.
Following her sentencing, she has been imprisoned at the Graham Correctional Institution of S.C. Department of Corrections but her lawyers have tried to get her freed via a state law that requires a pardon board to give "consideration to any inmate afflicted with a terminal illness where life expectancy is one year or less."
In their application, they got two doctors to testify to an S.C. Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services board that she has cancer of the neck and head that is not curable. But ultimately, not a single member was moved and voted unanimously to deny Cook a pardon.
Sixth Circuit Solicitor Randy Newman told the Herald that he and the prosecutors who tried the homicide case against Cook, along with the victim’s family, participated in the hearing and that all family members and law enforcement from the State Law Enforcement Division asked that Cook remains in prison. "We are pleased with the result that the pardon was denied," he said.