A Quincy, Massachusetts, woman was sentenced Thursday in the beating death of her 11-month-old niece in 2018, according to the Norfolk District Attorney's Office.
Shu Feng Hsu, 32, was convicted last week on a manslaughter charge.
Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins sentenced her to 5 to 7 years in state prison on Thursday morning. She will be given credit for time served dating back to Nov. 20, 2018, when she was originally taken into pre-trial custody.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a 15 to 18 year sentence, citing multiple aggravating factors including the child's age and defenselessness and Hsu's position of authority as the child's aunt and babysitter.
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Hsu was committed to the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
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According to prosecutors, in February 2018 Hsu was living in a home in Quincy's Wollaston neighborhood with seven other family members, including her niece Chloe Chen. Chen called 911 while she was babysitting Chloe to say the baby was in distress. Chloe did not survive.
Chloe died of trauma, including to the head, according to autopsy results.
One piece of evidence in the case against Hsu was a video and audio recording from the home. On one audio recording from the room Chloe was in, a child can be heard crying for an extended period of time. Hsu enters the room, and then multiple thuds can be heard. The crying then stops.
Jurors heard from a medical expert during the trial that Chloe's brain had suffered injuries consistent with the type of force typically seen in a 40 mph car crash. Another doctor said he believed the child's injuries were caused by "significant, multiple repeated forces."
Hsu was initially charged with murder in 2018, but was ultimately found guilty of the lesser manslaughter charge.
