Minneapolis day care provider gets probation for hanging baby

A Minneapolis woman who pleaded guilty to trying to kill a child at her in-home day care in 2016 was sentenced Monday to 10 years of probation with electronic home monitoring.

Hennepin County prosecutors had asked for a nearly 13-year prison sentence for Nataliia Karia. Judge Jay Quam, though, said Karia's actions were a "product of psychosis" as determined by a court-appointed expert.

Prosecutors said that on the morning of Nov. 18, 2016, Karia told a father who was dropping off his 3-year-old at the day care that "she couldn't take it anymore and come see what she had done."

She led him toward the basement and he heard a baby crying, went down the stairs and saw the toddler hanging from a noose formed from two pairs of child-sized tights hanging from a pipe in the ceiling basement.

The man released the child and fled out the door with him, then contacted his wife who contacted police and drove to Karia's house to watch the other children until police arrived. The child survived.

Karia took off in her minivan, triggering havoc on city streets as she hit and injured people with her car and then apparently tried to kill herself.

Karia told the court earlier this year that she had been struggling with mental health issues in the weeks leading up to the incident.