DAYTON — A woman has learned her sentence after her niece and nephew were found dead in the trunk of her car in 2021.
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Nicole Johnson was sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office.
As News Center 7 reported in 2021, police in Maryland made a routine traffic stop on the vehicle Johnson was driving on July 28, 2021, and smelled a foul odor from the vehicle.
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Officers eventually discovered the bodies of Joshlyn Marie James Johnson, 7, and Larry Darnell O’Neil III, 5, in the trunk of the car.
According to CBS affiliate WJZ-TV, when the autopsy was done the 7-year-old girl weighed 18 pounds and the 5-year-old boy weighed 21 pounds.
The two children lived in Dayton until around 2019 when their mother headed to Maryland.
LaQuata O’Neil, the grandmother of Larry spoke to News Center 7 in 2021.
LaQuata said the children’s mother immediately asked Nicole to care for the children when they arrived in Baltimore.
Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child abuse resulting in death in August 2024.
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