5 years later Mom finally sentenced

[Demon_Skeith]

It took five years, but a woman who played World of Warcraft day after day as her three-year-old daughter wasted away, dying of malnutrition and dehydration, is headed to prison. Rebecca Colleen Christie of Las Cruces, New Mexico was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday.

Christie's case was at the vanguard of the horrifying news trend of children dying or being hurt while their staggeringly inattentive parents nurse gaming addictions, particularly in social media or MMO gaming. Christie was convicted in November 2009 on second-degree murder and child abandonment charges. It wasn't clear why it took nearly two years to sentence her.

The case against Christie showed that the day the girl died, Christie had been playing Warcraft and chatting with friends she'd made online for 15 hours. Prosecutors said there appeared to be so little food that the girl ate cat food.

Her father, an Air Force sergeant, had been away for nine days when the girl died and expressed reservations about his wife's inability to care for the girl. When a 3 1/2-year-old is eating cat food while mom plays video games, she probably needs a little more from her father than the expression of reservations. He has pleaded guilty to child neglect and will be sentenced in two weeks.

source


our law system needs a swift kick in the @$$.

 

[OConvenio]

That's really terrible!!! It's always because things like this that people blame video games but come on.. It's clearly not video games problem, it's always the people. Who the hell leaves their children to die in order to play an online game.. I also do not agree with the father being sentenced as well, since he belonged to the air force he was forced to be away and there was no way he could envision or guess that his wife would be making such a bad job at taking care of children..

 

[Milton]

It's sad that her daughter ended up this way.
I don't think it's WoW's fault. It's like drinking, smoking or even doing anything really. It's okay to do it moderately, but excessive of anything usually ends up bad.

Gaming can help you strengthen your brain and hone critical thinking, but excessive gaming can lead to this - disability to differentiate between priorities as well as between right and wrong, and what is necessary and what is merely a virtual world.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

Why did it take so long for her to be sentenced? :/

I think twenty five years is appropriate since it involves a life being taken away, a little more time should have been sought but it's obvious the mother has a mental condition and needs some kind of help. Hopefully she will be able to get the help she needs, but nothing can bring back the life that was lost.