The mother of 4-year-old Serenity McKinney learned her prison sentence on Wednesday after pleading guilty to manslaughter in connection to her daughter’s death.
Catherine “Abby” McKinney will serve 12 years in prison for the charges of manslaughter, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, according to Bullitt Circuit Court Judge Rodney D. Burress.
McKinney took a plea deal in April to drop charges from murder to manslaughter in order to get her to testify against her boyfriend, Dakota Hill, the second suspect in the case.
Burress reminded McKinney that the sentencing is based on her own conduct and that Hill, who has not yet gone to trial, may be found innocent in the case.
Serenity was reported missing by her grandparents in January 2022 after she had been last seen in December 2020.
The search continued for a month before Kentucky State Police found Serenity’s body in a wooded area near the Jefferson-Bullitt County line in February 2022. An autopsy confirmed the body as Serenity’s in August 2022.
McKinney’s attorneys claim Hill was abusing McKinney and her daughter.
Hill is set to appear in court in June.
Source: WAVE
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