California mom who left her three-year-old daughter to die in a hot car for nearly ten hours because she wanted to get the 'lustful demons' out of her is convicted of the toddler's torture and murder
- Angela Phakhin, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder and felony torture in the 2017 hot-car death of her daughter, Maiya
- Phakhin faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced on July 19
- Her fiance, Untwan Smith, 48, has a trial pending on the same charges
- Couple are accused of placing Phakhin's daughter under a pile of blankets in the backseat of their SUV on a hot June day in 2017
A woman has been convicted of murder after leaving her three-year-old daughter in an SUV for more than nine hours on a hot summer day in California.
Angela Phakhin, 29, was found guilty on Wednesday in Sacramento of first-degree murder and felony torture following a month-long trial.
Authorities say Phakhin and her fiance, 48-year-old Untwan Smith, repeatedly left her daughter, Maiya, in the vehicle in the summer of 2017 because she wanted to remove 'lustful demons' from the girl.
Angela Phakhin, 29 (left), has been found guilty of first-degree murder and felony torture in the 2017 hot-car death of her daughter, Maiya (right)
Police in Rancho Cordova, California, found the toddler buried under a pile of blankets in the back of Phakhin's white SUV (top right) on a blazing summer day in June 2017
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The girl spent more than four hours there on June 27, 2017.
The next day, she was found dead under a pile of blankets after a nine-and-a-half-hour stretch.
Sacramento County prosecutors say Phakhin told authorities she and Smith, who was not Maiya's biological father, were trying to remove 'lustful demons' from the girl.
Phakhin's fiance, Untwan Smith, 48, has a trial pending on the same charges of murder and torture
Prosecutors say Phakhin was repeatedly warned and advised to take the girl to a cooling shelter, but she refused.
Phakhin, her daughter and Smith moved from Arkansas to California in 2016, reported the Sacramento Bee.
On June 28, 2017, police in Rancho Cordova found the family's white Toyota RAV4 SUV parked on the wrong side of Rod Beaudry Drive and went to investigate.
Both Phakhin and her fiance were standing near the vehicle.
When officers opened the SUV, they found Maiya unresponsive underneath a pile of blankets in the backseat. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
National Weather Service data show temperatures in the Sacramento area climbed to about 89 degrees that day.
Phakhin faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced on July 19.
Smith’s trial is pending on the same charges of murder and torture.
Phakhin told authorities she and Smith were trying to remove 'lustful demons' from her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter (pictured above)
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