A BABYSITTER who went on television to proclaim her innocence after a baby died in her care has admitted shaking the girl so hard her spine shattered.
Samantha Klein, 31, admitted to the manslaughter of three-month-old Alaya Foster, who died at her home in Niagara Falls, New York in February.
Klein had initially denied having any role in Alaya’s death, appearing on a news report three weeks later and declaring: “I did nothing to that baby.”
She claimed that a bruise on the infant’s face was there when her mother, Dominique Hilson, dropped her off for a two-day stay.
Klein said she only noticed anything was wrong when she went to put her to bed on the second day.
“I kissed her on her forehead and she was just cold,” she said.
“I started screaming and I had my friend call 911 and I started panicking.
“I didn’t know what to do.”
Klein was a certified day care employee who had babysat Alaya on multiple occasions in the past.
She also said she had “loved” Alaya and that she feared for her own safety after becoming “known as a baby killer”.
But appearing at Niagara County Court on Tuesday, Klein entered a guilty plea to a charge of first-degree manslaughter.
She admitted to causing Alaya’s injuries, which included a brain bleed, a fractured skull, and damage to her spinal cord, by shaking the baby and using blunt force trauma.
Klein took an unresponsive Alaya to hospital on the evening of February 23 after responding to a text from Hilson asking when Klein would be dropping Alaya off by offering to watch her for another night.
Alaya’s family had repeatedly insisted that Klein was responsible for her death and called on police to file charges.
In addition to pleading guilty to the manslaughter, Klein has admitted selling fentanyl to a police officer in June 2018 and carrying out a knife-point robbery last Christmas Eve, the Niagara Gazette reported.
She faces 25 years in prison for the manslaughter and 17 and a half years for the other crimes, with sentencing due to take place on December 3.
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