Plea in 1957 Child Death Unfair? Mother Who Killed Infant to Serve 45 Days
A 76-year-old mother accused of killing her infant child in 1957 has been offered a lenient plea bargain due to her age, but some are outraged because of the decision.
A number of people believe that Ruby Klokow, who was sentenced to 45 days in prison in addition to a 10-year parole on Monday following charges of second-degree murder, should have to spend the rest of her life in jail. Her sentence is a result of a plea bargain that took her old age into consideration, but critics are incensed by the leniency.
"Lock her up for the rest of her miserable life. She never deserved all these years of freedom she had. Make her pay for her atrocious actions against her own children," one user wrote on a Huffington Post blog.
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"This psycho should rot in prison everyday she has left on this earth," another user said.
Klokow is accused of killing her 6-month old infant daughter in 1957. Charges came after her son, now 57, first alleged vicious child abuse in 2008. After her daughter's death, Klokow told police that she was busy with her son James when her daughter, Jeaneen, fell off the couch. The death was ruled "accidental."
"An autopsy found that Jeaneen had suffered two brain hemorrhages, a partially collapsed lung and three scalp bruises," the Associated Press stated. The injuries were not consistent with Klokow's story.
Klokow also had a second child, Scott, who was found dead in his crib seven years after Jeaneen, AP confirmed. In the criminal complaint, Klokow allegedly pled guilty to killing her daughter, but no accusations were made that she abused her son.
James Klokow blamed the abuse on his mother's drinking addiction and said that all of his siblings, including himself, had suffered from his mother's temper. In the complaint, Ruby admitted that she was frustrated that both her children had begun to cry at the same time.
"She told detectives she grabbed Jeaneen from her stroller and threw her toward the couch," the Daily Mail said in a report. The baby then let out a "different kind of cry" before her eyes "turned strange." Other accounts of abuse included making her 5-year-old son stand in a corner with a bag over his head while she hit his toes with a hammer.
In the complaint, Ruby Klokow admitted that she regretted having children and could not keep up with four young ones at the same time.
Klokow's son, who brought forward the accusations, had hoped that his mother would get life in prison.
"I don't want nothing to do with my mother anymore," he said according to The Post. "I don't consider her my mother."
