Mom, Whose Baby Died After Being Left in Hot Car While She Was Working at Fast Food Restaurant, Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison By Kimberlee Speakman

A Louisiana mother, whose 10-month old baby daughter died after being left inside a hot car while she worked her shift at a fast food restaurant, has been sentenced.

The Jefferson Davis Parish District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release on Wednesday, Jan. 21, that Hannah Faith Cormier was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

The enhanced penalty was due to the fact that the victim in the case was under the age of 10.

Cormier was arrested in August 2024 after she told authorities that she “inadvertently left” her 10-month-old daughter in the vehicle while she worked, the Jennings Police Department said in a press release shared on Facebook at the time.

Police said the baby “had been in a hot car approximately 1 1/2 hours” before she was found and taken to a local hospital, where staff “worked to obtain a pulse.” The child was transported to another emergency center, where she was listed as being in critical condition.

Cormier’s daughter “later died from what police said was a heat stroke,” per the Associated Press. The American Press reported at the time that the girl’s body temperature had been 109 degrees when she was taken to the hospital, on a day when the temperature outside was in the 90s.

Cormier was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 2, 2024, for negligent homicide, which is defined under Louisiana law “as the killing of a human being by criminal negligence,” according to the D.A.’s office. She entered a plea of no contest to the charge on July 14, 2025.

The D.A.’s office said the case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Torrie Thibodeaux, who  “sought a sentence in the range of five to 10 years” at the sentencing hearing. 

“She left the child in the vehicle for 90 minutes in August when the temperature was 95 degrees outside,” Thibodeaux said at the hearing, per American Press.

However, Cormier’s defense attorney, Bill Riley, alleged that there was a “huge amount of confusion” on the day of the incident as the mom was sick and had not been expecting to go into work that day, per American Press. He also noted that Cormier has made positive strides since the incident, having undergone parenting and mental health counseling and regained custody of her other four children, while under supervision.

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“To me, it was a perfect storm of bad things happening. She didn’t intend for this to happen and has suffered greatly,” Riley said, per the outlet.

Jefferson Davis Parish District Attorney Lauren Heinen said in a statement in the press release: “The death of any child is heartbreaking, and losing this 10-month-old baby has deeply affected our whole community.”

“No sentence can bring her back or take away the pain everyone feels,” she added. “This was a difficult case with tragic circumstances, but every child deserves to be protected. We will continue to stand up for those who can’t speak for themselves.”