A Norfolk judge sentenced 29-year-old Shelby Rae Love to 15 years in prison for the neglect and subsequent felony homicide of her 2-year-old, Harley Williams.
Love, according to court testimony, had left her daughter in the care of her boyfriend, John Tucker Hardee, who scalded the toddler.
Love and Hardee then failed to get Harley medical care, and the girl died as a result.
Hardee, 38, was sentenced in May to 35 years in prison for his part in this crime.
On April 23, 2018, Hardee was home alone with Harley while Love was at work. At some point that afternoon, Tucker scalded Harley in the bathtub and inflicted third-degree burns to 30 percent of her body, including to her back, extremities, and left ear.
Hardee texted Love around 4:30 p.m. to leave work and hurry home, and she arrived at their 20th Bay Street apartment around 5:20 p.m.
Upon Love’s arrival, Hardee claimed Harley was burned because the bathtub water was too hot. Love did not believe the burns were significant and so, rather than take Harley to the hospital, the pair attempted to treat Harley for the next several hours with a combination of Tylenol, gauze, Pedialyte, lidocaine and apple cider vinegar.
At 3:30 a.m., after Harley was unresponsive, shaking, and breathing laboredly, Hardee called 911.
When medics arrived, Harley was having a seizure, and her skin was sloughing off where Hardee had scalded her and where Hardee and Love had applied lidocaine and vinegar. Harley was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
The autopsy also revealed blunt force injuries throughout her body, including a 7-inch bruise to the back of her head and a large bruise to her abdomen accompanied by an internal injury to her small intestine. There was also a toxic amount of lidocaine in Harley’s blood.
A subsequent autopsy showed that Harley would likely have lived had her mother and Hardee gotten her prompt medical care.
Because of the severity of Love’s neglect, she was indicted for child abuse or neglect and felony homicide on Nov. 7, 2018. She pleaded guilty to both charges on Oct. 28, 2020, and Judge David W. Lannetti accepted her plea.
Today, Lannetti sentenced Love to an active sentence of 15 years in prison, with 15 additional years suspended conditioned upon her uniform good behavior and completion of indeterminate supervised probation following her release from prison.
Following a July 2022 bench trial, Judge John R. Doyle III found Hardee guilty of child abuse or neglect, malicious wounding, and felony homicide. Doyle sentenced Hardee in May to 35 active years in prison, with 10 additional suspended years conditioned upon Hardee completing 10 years of supervised probation upon his release.
“Shelby Love very likely could have saved her daughter Harley,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Instead, Ms. Love covered for the man who severely burned her daughter, and Ms. Love inflicted terrible pain in her daughter’s last hours. Ms. Love will spend the next 15 years in prison. Hopefully her role in the death of her daughter will be on her conscience forever.”
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Chris Graham
