Grandmother gets 28 years in death of Gerren Isgrigg, Texas boy dubbed "Wylie's Angel"
(CBS/AP) MCKINNEY, Texas - The grandmother of a disabled 6-year-old boy whose body was found near a Dallas-area pond last year was sentenced to 28 years in prison Wednesday.
64-year-old Darlene Phillips, who was the boy's maternal grandmother and primary caretaker, had faced up to a life sentence and pleaded guilty to murder as part of a plea deal.
Defense attorney Marc Fratter said his goal was to make sure Phillips didn't spend the rest of her life in prison.
The boy, identified as Gerren Joseph Isgrigg, was severely disabled, had seizures daily, and had to be fed through a feeding tube, reports the Dallas Morning News. The 6-year-old was also reportedly blind, deaf, and had no function in his arms or legs. Police have said he was small for his age, weighing just 28 pounds.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Phillips told her husband in April 2010 that she left the child in a park with a note explaining his condition, hoping that someone would pick him up.
When Gerren Isgrigg's initially unidentified body was found in Wylie, Texas on April 15, 2010, he was nicknamed "Wylie's Angel" by residents.
A candlelight vigil last year brought hundreds of people to a Wylie park to pray for answers to the child's identity, and what had happened.