A baby sitter is headed to prison for her role in the death of a 4-year-old girl who became trapped in a futon when left with other young children at northern New Jersey home last year.
Essex County prosecutors announced Monday that Sykita Covington received a three-year sentence. The 40-year-old Newark resident had pleaded guilty in April to child endangerment charges.
Authorities have Covington left four children, ages 1 to 4, alone inside an apartment at a Newark housing complex in May 2014.
While Covington was out, Naira Bennett became trapped inside a futon, which closed around her head and body. A neighbor found the child unresponsive, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later.
The three other children in Covington's care were unharmed.
