TOOMBS COUNTY, Ga. — In what a district attorney called a ‘heart-wrenching situation’, a Georgia woman will spend years behind bars for the death of her young daughter.
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Last Thursday, Taylor Marie Hughes, of Lyons, pleaded guilty in Toombs County Superior Court for the death of her 4-year-old daughter, Reese Carter Hughes.
The plea stems from the investigation that began on March 14. Toombs County deputies responded to a call about an unresponsive child. The caller informed dispatch that they were en route to the hospital from their home. Emergency responders met the caller at the Enmarket convenience store at West Liberty Street and South Victory Drive in Lyons.
Paramedics immediately began life-saving measures while headed to Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia, authorities said. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Reese Hughes was pronounced dead.
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Investigators said, Taylor Hughes failed to protect her daughter from physical abuse inflicted by her boyfriend, Seth Hunter Brown, of Lyons, and failed to get Reese immediate medical attention.
Before pleading guilty, TCSO said Taylor Hughes provided critical information to investigators and agreed to testify against Brown in his upcoming trials.
Taylor Hughes pleaded guilty to one count of felony murder and two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree. She was sentenced to life plus twenty concurrent.
Brown is still awaiting trial.
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District Attorney Tripp Fitzner said it was a heart-wrenching situation.
“It is a heart-wrenching situation. I lack the words to express the magnitude of this tragedy. Whether you know the families involved or not, it affects us deeply at a visceral level,” Fitzner wrote.
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