Shanquilla Garvey mug shot (Will County State’s Attorney’s Office) and the Bel-Air Motel (Google Maps)
A 30-year-old mother in Illinois will spend more than three decades behind bars after admitting to beating her 8-month-old daughter to death because the infant would not stop crying. Twelfth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Daniel Rippy on Friday ordered Shanquilla Garvey to serve a sentence of 35 years in a state correctional facility for the brutal slaying of young Cherish Freeman, authorities announced.
Garvey previously pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder for killing the child, who died on Christmas Eve in 2017 from a spate of horrific injuries. In addition to the prison sentence — which Garvey will have to serve in full, with no chance of early parole — she will also be required to serve three years of supervised release.
Prosecutors applauded the sentence, but lamented that no punishment could give the victim the life she deserved.
“For a mother to beat her own baby to death is incomprehensible,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “Cherish was taken from this earth simply because Shanquilla Garvey wanted her to stop crying. This precious baby girl’s last experience was one of trauma and suffering, something no prison sentence can ever undo.”
According to a news release from the state attorney’s office, Garvey on Dec. 20, 2017, called 911 to the Bel-Air Motel in the 1100 block of Plainfield Road in Joliet and reported that her daughter was unresponsive. At the time, Garvey, Cherish, and Garvey’s two other children had been temporarily living at the establishment, prosecutors said.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located Cherish and rushed her via ambulance to Ascension Saint Joseph Hospital in Joliet. Due to the severity of the infant’s condition, she was airlifted about 10 miles northeast to Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Medical personnel at the children’s hospital determined that Cherish had suffered two distinct skull fractures, was bleeding from her brain, and had a lacerated liver. The child was admitted to the intensive care unit, but unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead four days later.
In the release, prosecutors said that Cherish suffered the fatal injuries because Garvey’s increasing frustration with the child’s crying led her to violently lash out.
“Garvey wanted Cherish to stop crying and threw her into a dresser, picked her up, shook her, and threw her onto the ground of the motel room,” prosecutors said. “Cherish then became unresponsive, and Garvey called 911.”
Garvey, who has been incarcerated since her initial arrest, was also credited with 2,377 days of time already served, which is roughly 6 1/2 years.
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