Millionaire mum jailed for killing autistic son

NEW YORK: The millionaire mother who killed her eight-year-old autistic son in a luxury New York hotel room was sentenced to 18 years in a state prison on Thursday, prosecutors announced.
A jury convicted Gigi Jordan, 54, of manslaughter in the first degree in the New York state supreme court in November over the February 2010 death of her son Jude Mirra at the Peninsula Hotel.
Jordan, a former pharmaceutical executive, checked into the ultra-expensive Fifth Avenue hotel with Jude on Feb 3, 2010.
She was found guilty of fatally poisoning her son, by forcing high doses of prescription medication down his throat with a syringe between that night and the early hours of Feb 5.
She was later found sitting next to the bed where her son lay unresponsive, surrounded by pills and pill bottles.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance welcomed the sentencing.
"No one – and particularly no child – deserves the type of death that Jude Mirra suffered at the hands of his mother," Vance said.
"The poisoning and killing of an eight-year-old boy is a premeditated act of child abuse. After five years, justice has finally been served with today's sentence of 18 years." – AFP