Editor’s Note: We have updated this story.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) —A woman who left her baby in a hot car while she was on drugs inside her home was sentenced to prison Monday.
On Sept. 2, 2020, Megan Dauphin drove to buy cigarettes and took her baby McKinlee Grace Garner with her. But when Dauphin returned home, she forgot to take McKinlee out of the truck.
It wasn’t until sometime later when Dauphin’s step-daughter asked about the 7-week-old that Dauphin realized what she had done and ran to the vehicle. The baby had died in the heat.
Megan’s sister Tiffany Dauphin says, it was a mistake and Megan is a great mom.
“I’ve known her as kind, respectable, trustworthy, honest, giving. And she’s always been there to help any time that anyone in the family has ever needed anything. She loves kids. She has always loved kids,” said Tiffany Dauphin.
Megan Dauphin got the maximum sentence for aggravated manslaughter of a child, 30 years in prison, and the prosecution said Dauphin only thinks about herself.
“Megan’s always concerned this entire time, and the only thing I’ve ever heard her say is I’m going to prison. And they’re the same thing, you know, that’s all she cared about. If I had done this, there is no way that I could live with myself,” former friend Nicole Curry said.
With all the emotion in the room, Megan said she did the best she could.
“I do the best I can every day to just be there for the rest of my other kids. But even that is, or anytime I see any little girl I serve, I would break down in the bathroom and cry,” said Megan Dauphin.
Dauphin can appeal the sentencing within the next 30 days.