Judge gives Frazier mandatory sentence

Last month, Misty Frazier was found guilty of child endangerment causing death for giving her 8-year-old daughter Kathleen a fatal dose of a powerful antidepressant in 2016.

On Thursday, Frazier was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison but with good behavior and an early parole, could be out of prison in just one year.

During the sentencing phase, District Court Judge Susan Larson-Christensen intimated her hands were tied by sentencing guidelines that level a maximum penalty of 50 years for a child endangerment causing death conviction, an aggravated felony. But with no mandatory minimum and indeterminate sentencing guidelines on the charge, Frazier would be eligible for a parole board review after just one year.

Frazier will serve out her time at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville.

Before handing down her sentence, Judge Larson-Christensen allowed Frazier to address the court for the first time. She did not testify during the trial.

“I’d just like to say that the ruling you made was fair but I’d like you to take some leniency on me,” Frazier said to Judge Larson-Christensen through tears. “I know what I did was wrong and I feel so bad for it. I was just helping my daughter. I never meant to harm her.”

Following the sentencing, Mills County Attorney Naeda Elliott expressed frustration. She feels no sentence is long enough for Frazier’s crime but that it needed to be long enough to give Kathleen justice.

“Since there was no mandatory minimum and the parole board is going to be deciding when she is going to get out, which could be as soon as a year, I can’t see how that’s justice,” Elliott said after the sentencing. “I would impress upon the legislature to include more mandatory minimum sentences for cases like this especially when it involves the death of a child.”

Frazier, 34, of Glenwood, was arrested last September after a 11-month investigation. She was initially charged with second-degree murder, child endangerment causing death and distribution of a prescription drug to a minor in the death of Kathleen, on Oct. 19, 2016. Prosecutors alleged Frazier had been dosing her daughter with amitriptyline for several weeks leading up to her death. Twice in the last five months of her life, Tafta was rushed to area emergency rooms after suffering overdoses.

At trial, Frazier was acquitted on the more serious charge of second-degree murder and also distribution of a prescription drug to a minor. Second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of 50 with a mandatory minimum of 35 years.

Elliott said she felt the evidence submitted did support the charge of second- degree murder but she conceded at the time some testimony during the trial challenged the state’s strongest evidence that Frazier “knew exactly what she was doing.”

 “Intent, malice aforethought is difficult to prove because it deals with the defendants own thoughts and we just didn’t get the conviction in this case,” Elliott said. “The judge didn’t find her guilty of murder in the second degree.”

Thursday’s sentencing had the court hear emotional victim impact statements from Kathleen’s father, John Tafta, his wife and Kathleen’s step-mother, Karen Tafta, as well as a family friend.

John Tafta read from a prepared statement, often fighting back tears and his voice rising in anger. He said  Frazier deserved to spend the rest of her life in prison.

“Misty, we trusted you with my daughter’s life,” John Tafta said. “We trusted you to be a responsible mother to guard Kathleen, protect her and keep her out of harm’s way. Instead, you did the opposite and you took her life. We all miss Kathleen horribly, but she will never be forgotten.

“Because of your selfishness, myself nor my family will ever forgive you. For killing Kadie. Myself and my family ask this court to show you no mercy as you showed my daughter.”

During his statement, Tafta also requested to have his daughter’s ashes returned to him for burial.

After the sentencing, James Frazier Sr., Misty’s father, was asked about the ashes and he said only a small amount remained.

“We, Misty, and the family scattered them last summer before Misty was arrested,” he said. “We put them (the ashes) in all the places Kadie loved.”

James went on to say some of the ashes were spread in the Black Hills in South Dakota, at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City and at the Carter Lake beach.

The emotional impact statements made it clear, Elliott said, Kathleen’s death was a tragedy that could have been prevented.

“I think its clear Kadie was loved and she was used as a pawn to basically (allow Misty) to get back at her ex-husband John,” Elliott said. “She didn’t want him to have custody of her as a punishment to him. But what she did was punish Kadie as a result.”

Elliot plans to personally appeal to the parole board to keep Frazier in jail as long as possible and she encourages people in the community to do the same.

“They need to see the severity of these types of cases and do this child justice by keeping Misty Frazier in prison as long as possible,” Elliott said.