Mother gets 35-year sentence for fatal beating of 1-year-old

CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago woman who reported that her 1-year-old son had been kidnapped but was later accused of killing the boy has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Lakeshia Baker pleaded guilty Thursday to murder in the April 2013 death of Bryeon Hunter. The boy's body was found by a kayaker on the Des Plaines River a month after he was killed. The badly decomposed remains were identified months later by DNA

Prosecutors say the 27-year-old Baker of Maywood beat her son to death with a belt as her boyfriend restrained the child and placed his hand over the boy's mouth to muffle his screams. When the pair realized the child had died, they dumped his body in the river and faked a kidnapping to cover it up.