A woman has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for fatally pouring vodka into her disabled son’s feeding tube.
Melissa Robitille, 41, from Hardwick, Vermont was sentenced on Tuesday to a minimum of four years in prison, WCAX-TV reports.
Prosecutors say that Robittile and her boyfriend gave 13-year-old Isaac alcohol in order to keep him quiet in August 2014. The boy needed his feeding tube to survive and died soon after from alcohol poisoning.
Robitille's boyfriend, Walter Richters, was convicted last year for manslaughter. He's already serving out a three-year sentence in prison.
Robitilles family felt that the sentence was not hard enough:
David Robitille, Isaac Robitille's uncle said: "The swath of destruction that this woman has laid behind her is wide and deep"
Robitille had previously been found guilty of manslaughter and her attorney argued the death was a “tragic mistake.”
Lottie Allen, Isaac's former foster mother said: “He was a very smart, strong young man that adapted to all of his imperfections. He knew and could tell everyone that touched him by a sign that they gave him.”
