“I have lost everything that’s ever made me happy because of one mistake,” said Rebekah Kinner, who was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison, minus time already served, and five years probation upon her release. She had faced as much as 25 years in prison.
But Judge Keith Spaeth said it wasn’t just one mistake that led to her young daughter’s death.
“It wasn’t just one bad choice, it was a series of bad choices,” Spaeth said. “Where life had placed you, put you in relationships, having children in a relationship with the co-defendant (Bradley Young) and allowing him to have access to your child. It seems to me a much bigger, broader issue brought us where we are today.”
Kinner's boyfriend, Young, faces charges of murder, felony endangering children and involuntary manslaughter. His attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss all charges.
Prosecutors said Young, 26, beat Kinsley to death in early December, and Kinner did nothing to stop the abuse.
Kinner told investigators that Young shook and punched Kinsley in the head multiple times. The 2-year-old then went in and out of consciousness and stopped breathing. She later died at the hospital.
“To call home and not hear her voice is hard,” Kinner said before her sentencing. “Every time I close my eyes, I see her smile. The last thing she said to me is, ‘I love you more, mommy,’ and that’s what I hear constantly.”
Kinner said she “lost her son, too.”
Kinner gave birth to a boy while incarcerated. That baby is in the custody of his biological father.
Kinner’s attorney Kyle Rapier said she was “brutally” raped at age 13 and suffers from PTSD and other disorders as a result.
Family members asked for leniency, saying that Kinner “would not hurt Kinsley in any way.”
Kinsley’s father, Scott Senft, however, requested the judge “not let up on this sentence.”
“I’ve seen people who do less go to jail for more,” Senft said.
“That was my baby girl that got taken. The videos and pictures, you can see all over the world. That was my world. It was also Bekah’s world, but she put herself in the situation where my daughter got taken,” he said.
Senft’s mother, Heidi Morgan, brought a plastic bag with a lock of blonde hair inside to the sentencing.
“The last thing I was given of Kinsley to remember my baby by was her hair,” said a sobbing Morgan.
“I’ve took her hair, pieces of it, and I’ve braided it because that’s all that I have left of my baby,” she said.
No sentence would bring her granddaughter back, Morgan said.
“I pray that God will do justice because justice can’t be served,” she said.
The next court hearing for Young is set for June 7, when his attorneys will present their case to have all charges against him dropped. His attorneys said calls with their client were recorded from the jail and that, they say, violates Young’s constitutional rights.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser has said there was no wrongdoing on the part of the prosecution or the sheriff’s office.
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