N.Y. Mom Gets Stiff Sentence for Burning Daughter in Voodoo Ritual

NEW YORK – A New York City woman who admitted setting her 6-year-old daughter ablaze during a voodoo ritual, scarring her body, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Marie Lauradin (lah-hahr-DAHN') was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to first-degree assault.

Prosecutors say Lauradin poured the liquid on her daughter at their Queens home in 2009 as part of a voodoo practice involving a loa, or spirit.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the young girl suffered life-threatening burns over 25 percent of her body, including her face, and is severely and permanently scarred.

Defense attorney Jeff Cohen said when Lauradin entered her plea last month that his client acknowledged that her actions were reckless. He would not comment on her motives.

Lauradin also faces possible deportation back to her native Haiti.