A babysitter who slapped, hit and shook a young girl in the days leading up to her death has been put behind bars.
On Thursday Lindsay Partin learned she would spend at least 18 years in prison for killing three-year-old Hannah Wesche.
The 37-year-old had been looking after the young girl at her Hanover, Ohio home in the weeks before her March 18 death.
Wesche died ten days after collapsing at home where, according to a recorded confession later played in court, Partin physically beat the toddler.
“I got mad and I just slapped her up the side of the head,” Partin was heard saying in the March 9 confession video.
“I shook her and I remember picking her up and squeezing her.”
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Although jurors would go on to find her guilty of the killing, the Ohio woman's lawyers argued she had been coerced into making the confession.
An autopsy found Wesche died from "tremendous brain damage" and deep bruising to the back of the head caused by a blunt impact, the Journal News reported.
Partin claimed that some of the bruising to the girl's face and chest had been sustained during a fall, while suggesting the toddler had passed out after her father Jason had dropped her.
This assertion formed a key part of the babysitter's defence, with her lawyers arguing Jason Wesche had caused the fatal injuries and then left his daughter in Partin's care.
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During the two week trial a pathologist cast doubt on this claim, giving evidence that the girl had died moments after the blow to her head.
According to his brother, Jason Wesche landed a construction job after a period of unemployment and would work 12 hour days to support his three children.
Each morning he would drop his daughter at the house of his next door neighbour, Partin, who would care for the girl.
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Prosecutors argued the babysitter was angry at the dad for falling behind on his $30 (£23) a day payments, deciding to take her feelings out on the girl after she poured a bottle of ketchup down the toilet.
"I can't begin to describe the anger that I feel. I hope she never gets out of jail for what you did to my daughter, it's unthinkable," the grieving dad said in court, Local12 reported .
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"I hope and pray every single day, that you get the same treatment in jail that you gave my daughter."
Partin was sentenced to life in prison for murder as well as three years for child endangering, with the possibility of parole in 15 years.
Her attorneys said she plans to appeal.
