Left inset: Raeleigh Phillips (Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Emmett Phillips (Markland Funeral Home). Background: The Indiana apartment complex where Raeleigh Phillips was living when she left her 9-day-old baby, Emmett Phillips, to die in his car seat (Google Maps).
An Indiana mom left a 9-day-old infant “strapped” in a car seat for 14 hours with “no feedings, no diaper change, and no comfort or care” while she watched TV and slouched around all day.
Raeleigh Phillips, 24, of Lawrenceburg, was sentenced on Monday to six years in prison after entering a guilty plea in September for reckless homicide in the March 2024 death of her son, Emmett Phillips.
Dearborn County Superior Court Judge Sally A. McLaughlin described in her sentencing order how Phillips showed no remorse throughout the incident, including during court proceedings.
“The court gives little mitigation to defendant stating ‘sorry’ in court with little emotion,” McLaughlin said. “The defendant violated her position of trust to her newborn child. The circumstances of the infant’s death in the words of the investigating detective are ‘unconscionable.'”
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According to McLaughlin, Emmett Phillips was found unresponsive in his car seat after being taken inside the home following a trip to a Kroger grocery store at around 2 p.m. that day. His mom initially lied to the police regarding the timeline, which was later established by evidence. She was observed standing back on home surveillance video while others at the residence called 911 and initiated CPR after finding Emmett unconscious.
“[Phillips] let the infant go to the hospital without her,” McLaughlin said.
A “further aggravator” that prompted McLaughlin to give Phillips six years behind bars, or the maximum penalty allowed, was that she had been convicted previously of felony neglect and was on probation at the time of Emmett’s death.
“Her child … was living with her in an apartment that was described as filthy with the child’s bed being a mattress on the floor next to dog feces and illegal drugs,” McLaughlin said. “The court does not find defendant will respond affirmatively to probation based on prior history of non cooperation with law enforcement and child services and committing crime in this matter while on probation.”
Phillips’s defense lawyer had tried arguing that she should be given probation or a shorter prison sentence due to having three other children. But McLaughlin quickly shot that claim down, saying, “All are in the custody of others and two have been the subject of child in need of services proceedings.”
Phillips also presented evidence “of being abused herself as a child,” and McLaughlin did give that claim “some merit,” but not enough to warrant a lesser punishment, per the judge.
According to local Fox affiliate WXIX, police reported that Phillips said she was watching TV and hanging out inside her home during the time that Emmett was in the car seat. She claimed Emmett was sleeping when she arrived home from Kroger and decided to leave him in the seat and not disturb him.
“He seemed content,” Phillips reportedly told police.
The mom wound up falling asleep, too, and awoke to Emmett being cold to the touch.
“Help me… call 911… Baby ain’t breathing,” Phillips’ roommates recalled her saying, according to WXIX. The cause of death was listed as positional asphyxia.
Phillips was initially charged with neglect of a dependent and reckless homicide, but was only convicted of reckless homicide as part of her plea deal.
