A mother will serve 12 to 40 years for killing her 2-year-old daughter inside their Bucks County, Pennsylvania, home.
A judge sentenced Kayla Moore after she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the April 2016 death of Athena Wolfe.
Falls Township police went to Kayla Moore’s Morrisville home after Moore called an ambulance because Athena appeared to be in cardiac arrest, said a police criminal complaint.
Doctors at Aria Hospital noticed extensive bruising to Athena’s face, back and chest and noted that she also appeared to be malnourished, according to police. The doctors stabilized the child before she was medivaced to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she died of blunt force trauma.
Detectives spoke to Moore about her daughter’s death and the then 23-year-old mother admitted to kicking Athena numerous times in the head and torso just prior to calling an ambulance.
