Kansas mom gets life in prison after toddler fatally shoots 4-year-old sister

A Kansas mother whose 2-year-old son fatally shot his 4-year-old sister has been sentenced to life in prison.

Mariann Belair, 24, won't be eligible for parole until she's served 25 years under the sentence imposed Tuesday in Shawnee County District Court, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported . Jurors found her guilty in May of aggravated child endangerment and first-degree murder in the commission of a felony.

Belair testified at her trial that she removed a loaded 9mm handgun from her diaper bag and placed it on the couch next to her in October while she was home with her 4-year-old daughter, Lawrencia Perez-Belair, and her 2-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.

She said she had planned to go get food with her family and was making sure she had everything she needed in the bag. She said Lawrencia then "distracted" her by asking her to take a cellphone photo of them together.

Deputy District Attorney Lauren Amrein told jurors that the gun sat on the couch at least 12 minutes before Belair's son, who was about to turn 3, picked it up and shot his sister. She said no reasonable person would have let the gun sit there so long with small children present.

In a later search of the home, officers discovered the gun as well as a bag of methamphetamine and paraphernalia, CBS affiliate WIBW reported .

Court records show Belair complained in a handwritten motion that her trial attorney discouraged her from taking a plea that would have resulted in her being sentenced to 10 years and three months in prison.

A new attorney assigned to the case has requested a new trial.

According to the nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety , there have been at least 162 unintentional shootings by children this year, resulting in 56 deaths and 108 injuries nationally.

Hundreds of children have been killed while playing with guns over the past two decades, according to data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A majority of these deaths happened while children were playing in an apartment or home – more than 50% of the deaths were in the child's own house.

A 2023 report released by Everytown For Gun Safety says safe storage procedures and laws can help reduce America's unintentional shootings. At the beginning of 2024, 26 states had some form of gun-safe storage or child access prevention laws. For children between the ages of 0 and 5 years old, more than half died from self-inflicted gunshots, and more than half of the children accidentally killed by another were under 10 years old, according to the nonprofit.

In April, a Pennsylvania man was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 3-year-old boy who authorities say shot himself with a handgun left unattended. In January, the parents of a 3-year-old toddler who shot and killed his 2-year-old brother were charged with manslaughter in Kentucky.