Jeanette Lawrence gets 41 months in daycare death of 18-month-old girl

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One of the sadder local stories of the last two years has finally come to an end. Former Olathe daycare operator Jeanette Lawrence was sentenced to 41 months in prison in the death of 18-month-old Ava Patrick, who suffocated in April 2009 after getting her neck stuck between slats on a fence separating babies from toddlers.

In October, a Johnson County jury found Lawrence guilty of involuntary manslaughter, child

endangerment and operating a daycare with too many children. At a sentencing hearing on Friday, Judge Franklin Davis threw the book at Lawrence, slapping her with the maximum possible sentence and, as The Kansas City Star reported, chewed her out good. “If you had followed the state’s rules, I’m confident that this little girl would be alive today,” Davis said.