Mother to serve 20 years in suffocating death of newborn

Mother to serve 20 years in suffocating death of newborn

ANCHORAGE — An Anchorage woman will spend 20 years in prison for suffocating her 3-week-old daughter with a plastic bag.

KTUU reports Sarah Bentley Johnson was sentenced Friday in Anchorage Superior Court to 40 years in prison, with half of the jail term suspended.

A jury found her guilty of first-degree murder last December in the death of her newborn, Pepper. Defense lawyers unsuccessfully argued she wasn’t guilty of murder because she suffered from postpartum psychosis, which prevented her from forming the intent to kill.

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