A DeKalb County father and his girlfriend have been sentenced for the brutal beating death of the man's 5-year-old daughter, Ja'Niyah Herring, who was falsely claimed to have been injured in a car accident. On Wednesday, Unchinna Myrick, 28, entered a guilty plea for voluntary manslaughter and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, after her co-defendant, 30-year-old Cedric O'Neal Herring, was previously found guilty of murder and cruelty to children back in September, as stated by the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, as FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
Cedric Herring was sentenced to life in prison, while Myrick received a 50-year sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years. The convictions draw to a close a tragic chapter that began on May 29, 2021, the day Ja'Niyah was beaten and then carried by Herring to Emory Decatur Hospital, where the pair concocted a story about a fictional multi-vehicle car accident, Herring initially told the hospital staff that Ja'Niyah had been knocked unconscious during the accident, but medical staff quickly determined her injuries were inconsistent with a car crash, a doctor noting bruises and wounds consistent with child abuse, which spurred a notification to the Division of Family and Children Services, the DeKalb Medical Examiner's Office, and DeKalb police, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
During the investigation, Ja'Niyah's siblings provided harrowing testimony, stating that Myrick had whipped Ja'Niyah with a cord and tied her to a bed as punishment for not helping clean the house, Herring later entering the scene and adding to the brutality; when Ja'Niyah collapsed, Herring attempted an ice bath to revive her before ultimately seeking medical attention. An autopsy later confirmed the young girl died from blunt force trauma, further swinging the gavel down on the couple's fabrications and sealing their sentences.
The loss of Ja'Niyah, her family's "bright light" as affirmed in her obituary, with her obituary poignantly adding, "That little girl was rare, a one-of-a-kind. Her life was short-lived but she touched many lives while she was here," capturing the essence of a grief that will linger much like the justice meted out in the courtroom, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
