Jurors convicted Jennifer Johnson in January after prosecutors tied the child’s fatal injuries to the hours she was caring for 8-month-old Hannah Kent.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A Boone County judge sentenced a Missouri woman to life in prison Monday after jurors found she killed an 8-month-old girl she had been asked to babysit, closing a case that began in April 2021 when the child’s mother returned home and found her unresponsive.

Jennifer Johnson, 49, was convicted in January of second-degree felony murder and two counts of first-degree child endangerment in the death of Hannah Kent. The ruling mattered because prosecutors said the baby’s injuries happened during the overnight hours Johnson was caring for her in Columbia, while the child’s mother was away and trusting a longtime friend to watch her daughter. The sentence also followed years of delays, including Johnson’s release from Missouri custody in 2025 before she was returned to Boone County to face trial.

Testimony at trial traced the case back to the weekend of April 17 and 18, 2021. Hannah’s mother, Lanetta Hill, left the infant in Johnson’s care beginning around 5 p.m. the evening before, according to court records and testimony. Hill later told the court it was the first time Johnson had been asked to babysit Hannah, though the women had known each other for more than a decade. Prosecutors said the arrangement ended in tragedy by the next morning. Hill returned home at about 8:30 a.m. on Sunday and found her daughter unresponsive and cool to the touch. She also noticed bruising right away, according to court records. The child was taken to Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia, where doctors pronounced her dead. Hill told the judge at sentencing that she had left her baby expecting she would be “safe, loved and protected,” but instead lost her child at the hands of someone she considered a friend.

Investigators and medical witnesses told jurors that Hannah had bruising and brain injuries consistent with recent trauma. Jynasha Hill, Hannah’s sister, testified that she saw Johnson burping the infant “aggressively” on the night the child died, according to the probable cause affidavit described in court reporting. Police also said they found baby formula on Johnson’s clothing and that testing showed blood from Hannah on the shirt. Another detail drew attention from investigators: a pink-and-white onesie was found soaking wet on a pantry shelf, even though police said Hannah had been wearing that same outfit when she was left at the home. By the time the child was taken to the hospital, she was wearing only a diaper. Prosecutors argued those facts showed panic and an effort to hide what happened inside the home. Johnson denied knowing how the infant was fatally injured and at one point told police she did not realize Hannah had died until relatives told her later that morning.

The timeline presented at trial undercut Johnson’s account in several places. She told police that she fed Hannah a bottle and put her down at about 2:15 a.m., then went to sleep. But prosecutors said phone records showed Johnson was awake and sending messages through the night, including texts asking people about drugs. Investigators also cited reported phone calls from the morning in which Johnson appeared to know the baby was dead before she claimed to have learned that fact. One friend told police Johnson called around 9:11 a.m. and said “the baby died.” According to the affidavit, Johnson also made statements such as “her head, her head” and “she’s gone.” Those details became central to the state’s argument that Johnson was not asleep during critical hours and was aware of the child’s injuries earlier than she admitted. Johnson later acknowledged she had used methamphetamine several days earlier, after first denying recent drug use. No public court summary has shown her giving a full explanation for Hannah’s injuries.

The case became a drawn-out one before it reached a jury. Johnson was arrested in 2021, but Boone County prosecutors did not secure the 2026 conviction until after a complicated custody period in 2025. ABC17 News reported that Johnson had been released from Missouri custody in June 2025 even though Boone County records listed her on a no-bond hold. A warrant followed, and she was later jailed in Arkansas before being returned to Boone County. That episode added another layer to a case already marked by the long gap between the infant’s death and the murder trial. By the time jurors heard the evidence in January 2026, the prosecution’s focus was narrow: whether the state had proved that the fatal injuries were inflicted while Hannah was in Johnson’s care and whether Johnson’s statements afterward showed deception. Jurors convicted her after about an hour of deliberations, according to local coverage of the verdict.

At sentencing on Feb. 23, Boone County Judge Brouck Jacobs imposed life in prison on the murder count and 15 years on each child-endangerment count. Hill used her victim impact statement to describe years of grief and the weight of having trusted Johnson with her baby. She said she constantly replayed the moment she left Hannah with someone she believed was a friend. Johnson’s family also reacted in court, with local coverage describing her daughter as upset by the outcome. The hearing did not change the central fact established by the verdict: the jury found Johnson criminally responsible for the death of an infant left in her care for a single night. The sentence means Johnson will remain in state custody unless an appeal changes the case. Missouri appellate court records had not been detailed in the reporting available at the time of sentencing.

The case now stands as one of the most closely watched child-death prosecutions in Boone County in recent years. Hannah’s death began with a routine overnight babysitting request and ended with a life sentence, a public courtroom statement from her mother, and a record of physical evidence that prosecutors said contradicted Johnson’s story. The next formal step is likely to come through post-trial motions or an appeal, though no specific hearing date was included in the reports available after sentencing.

Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.