Mother sentenced to six years in prison for locking toddler in basement filled with feces

A Columbia mother accused of locking her two-year-old child in a basement filled with feces has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Denecia Hatton was sentenced this afternoon for three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of possession of a controlled substance. The mother of four was sentenced to six years on each count, but her sentences will run concurrently.

As ABC 17 News previously reported, police were dispatched to the 2100 block of Ammonette Drive back in 2016 to check the welfare of children in the residence. When they arrived, they said they found an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old upstairs in the home and a 2-year-old locked in the basement. There were no adults home at the time; the 12-year-old child was not home, either.

Officers said they opened the locked basement door and the smell of feces and urine were so strong that it was difficult to breathe. They said the 2-year-old was naked, wrapped in a blanket soaked in his own urine.

Three officers testified at Hatton’s sentencing Tuesday. One officer said the stench in the basement was so bad, she wondered if the toddler was alive.

Hatton also testified at her sentencing and told the judge how her husband tried to kill her back in 2015. David Hatton is currently serving time in prison for torturing Ms. Hatton.

“I woke up out of my sleep, beat up, tased and choked out, tied up and carried to the basement. I had a bag placed over my head,” Hatton told the judge.

The defense asked for probation but the prosecutor pushed for prison time arguing that, while Hatton’s ordeal was horrible, she had choices because both her grandmother and aunt lived in Boone County.